Untold stories of the UFC's viral champion, Merab Dvalishvili - ESPN

IN FEBRUARY 2021, UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili made one of the dumbest decisions of his life during one of the biggest snowstorms to hit Long Island, New York, in a decade. His coach, Ray Longo, told the entire Serra-Long Fight Team that the gym was closed for two days. Stay home. With training canceled, Dvalishvili went on a run around a nearby park. When he'd finished, he decided to have himself a nice little ice bath, right there in the lake.

«I don't like to check the temperature of a bath before I get in, because it's so cold and it makes it harder [to get in],» Dvalishvili tells ESPN. «I knew the water wasn't deep, so I didn't think I could jump in feetfirst. I wanted to jump in at an angle, like you do in shallow water. I didn't realize the water was frozen.»

He went for it, pushing off the bank with both feet, hands outstretched. The ice broke, but not without a whole lot of resistance. Dvalishvili instantly stood up, put his hands on his head and began repeating, «F---, I am so stupid. I am so stupid. F---.»

A post shared by Merab Dvalishvili (@merab.dvalishvili)

Dvalishvili went straight to the emergency room, where a cut on the right side of his head was closed with staples. For the longest time, hair wouldn't grow from the scar site. But after undergoing a hair transplant two years later, he looks good as new.

Diving headfirst into that lake is admittedly one of the dumbest things Dvalishvili has ever done. One of the smartest things he has ever done is post a video of the entire thing to the internet. It went viral and gained him tens of thousands of followers in a single day.

«I didn't even remember I'd filmed it at first,» Dvalishvili says. «When I was walking home, I said, 'Oh s---, I was