The Prime Minister of Georgia announced a decision to nominate Georgian mixed martial arts wrestler Merab Dvalishvili for the “highest state award” after his UFC bantamweight crown victory on Sunday.

As Irakli Kobakhidze said, Dvalishvili had gone through a “very difficult” path towards this success.

“I want to congratulate Dvalishvili on yesterday"s great success. We all followed this important match, which was awaited by the entire Georgia with great interest, and it should be noted that for the second year already, a Georgian has won the UFC, which is a unique achievement and speaks of the special sports talent of our country and the talent of Georgians. We continue the tradition and together with the Speaker of the Parliament [Shalva Papuashvili] we made a decision to nominate Merab Dvalishvili for the highest state award”, - added the Head of the Government.