Preview: UFC on ESPN 10 ‘Eye vs. Calvillo’

Bantamweights

Merab Dvalishvili (10-4) vs. Ray Borg (13-5)

ODDS: Dvalishvili (-400), Borg (+325)

Borg is certainly making up for lost time. After the Albuquerque, New Mexico, native lost his flyweight title shot against Demetrious Johnson in 2017, he went through a difficult time professionally and personally. Injuries kept him out of the cage for roughly 18 months, and his newborn son required multiple brain surgeries. Borg finally managed to make his return in March 2019, but his next few fights were a mixed bag. On the plus side, Borg won two of his first three fights during his comeback by doubling down on a control wrestling game. However, that came at the expense of everything else. “The Tazmexican Devil” no longer showed off any of the dynamic scrambling ability that was his greatest strength, and whatever progress he had made on his boxing game had simply stalled. Add in the fact that Borg’s issues making weight—something that has been a bugaboo throughout his career—continued to persist, and it has been difficult to have confidence in him going forward, even when he has won his fights. His last bout against Ricky Simon was another case of good news bad news. Borg finally looked like his old self and was both a willing and effective boxer, but Simon was still able to control swaths of the fight with his wrestling. It suggests that despite his inability to make flyweight, Borg is just not large or powerful enough to succeed at bantamweight. However, if Borg is going to keep looking for answers at 135 pounds, it is at least nice that he is back near his peak form in doing so. Borg is back just a month after the Simon fight for what is already his third fight in 2020. Unfortunately, the UFC has not done him any favors by matching him with Dvalishvili.

Dvalishvili is certainly a UFC-level fighter and a rising prospect, but the story behind his signing is still amusing for a few reasons. For one, it is an extremely Dana White move to sign someone off a 15-second spinning backfist knockout when he was there to scout the other guy, but it is also funny because it was complete false advertising for Dvalishvili’s strengths. “The Machine” is the kind of maniac who will throw a spinning backfist for no particular reason, but he was not even a finisher at the regional level and mostly focuses on wearing out his opponents with relentless wrestling. When Dvalishvili cannot wear down his counterpart, he walks a fine line given his inability to cause a ton of damage, but his current three-fight winning streak represents an impressive run that shows just how hard it is to keep up with the Georgian over 15 minutes. His win over Casey Kenney in February was particularly strong, given that Kenney made his name in the UFC by neutralizing and taking over on aggressive wrestlers. This should be three rounds of absolute madness, and it is just a matter of whether or not Borg can keep up.

The Simon-Borg fight was an excellent scrap, and the opportunities and the challenges are similar here for Borg. Dvalishvili is a defensive void who gets by on aggression, so while there will be chances for Borg to cause some damage on the feet, he will have to fight off takedown after takedown to do so. He could win this based on offense, but Dvalishvili figures to have success controlling large parts of this fight; and until proven otherwise, Borg just is not strong enough to be a highly successful grappler at bantamweight. This should be entertaining throughout, but the pick is Dvalishvili via decision.

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