Fighter claims he had to stop sparring with UFC star Ilia Topuria: ‘Thank God my head is fine’

New two-division UFC champion Ilia Topuria hits so hard that his fellow Georgian Merab Dvalishvili—also a UFC champ—had to stop sparring with him.

Topuria was back in action at UFC 317 last Saturday. He knocked out Charles Oliveira to claim the vacant lightweight belt in the main event. His lightweight title win followed a brief reign at featherweight, where he scored two similarly stunning KOs against Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski.

Having just knocked out three MMA legends in a row, Topuria is now considered one of the sharpest and most powerful punchers in the UFC.

Dvalishvili, who is the reigning UFC bantamweight champ, certainly seems to agree with that. Apparently, they’ve sparred together in the past. It was such a brutal experience that the bantamweight champ had to stop.

Merab Dvalishvili opens up on brutal sparring sessions with fellow UFC champ Ilia Topuria

Merab says Ilia Topuria dropped him twice during sparring:

“I can’t spar with him anymore, he hits too hard… he dropped me two times with a body shot…

Every time I finished sparring with him I said ‘Thank God.’” 😭😭

🎥 @arielhelwani #UFCpic.twitter.com/gwThFmsxfK

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 30, 2025

“I sparred with him,” Dvalishvili said of Topuria on The Ariel Helwani Show. “He has great wrestling, great jiu jitsu.

“I can’t spar with him anymore because he hits too hard. He dropped me twice with the body shot. Thank God my head is fine. Every time I finished sparring with him I was happy and said ‘thank God.'”

Topuria now represents his current home of Spain as well of Georgia. He is widely considered one of the top three pound-for-pound fighters in MMA right now. Georgia’s Dvalishvili shares that reputation. That’s thanks to a string of wins over the likes of Sean O’Malley (twice), Umar Nurmagomedov, Petr Yan, Henry Cejudo, and Jose Aldo.