UFC bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili knows he has the tools to claim the Sean O’Malley’s bantamweight title this weekend.

The Georgian star, who is currently in the midst of a ten-fight win streak that has seen him dispatch former world champions Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan and Jose Aldo in his last three outings, will top this weekend’s UFC 306 card (or Riyadh Season Noche UFC if you prefer) against dynamic striker O’Malley in a bout to determine the next pacesetter at 135-pounds.

Dvalishvili’s arrival in the title picture has delayed somewhat during the reign of his close friend and training partner Aljamain Sterling — but stepping into the cage this weekend against Sterling’s conqueror O’Malley, the division’s top contender says that he is extremely confident of victory but knows that anything can happen in high level mixed martial arts.

“Stylistically, it’s easy for me because my cardio, my grappling, my style should work against him,” Dvalishvili told the media, including The Mac Life, Wednesday in Las Vegas.

“But at the same time, we see what he can do,” he added. “He can throw something big. It’s a challenge. I can dominate, but he can throw one punch and he can change everything. Every fight is like this. I don’t look at any fights in the UFC as easy. There is no easy fights here. Not always the best fighter wins. We’ve seen it so many times.”

The lead-in to the fight has been tense on some occasions, perhaps particularly following O’Malley’s knockout win over Sterling. But Dvalishvili is eager to ensure that he does not bring any animosity with him to the cage inside the Las Vegas Sphere this weekend.

“This a professional fight for the UFC belt. This is for legacy. I was mad at him a couple times. I was very mad when he mentioned my country in a disrespectful way. Because my country, it’s more than religion for me.

“I have my country here,” he said, gesturing to a pendant on his chest. “That’s why I started fighting because I want to represent my country. This is healthy competition. This is what we do. Then when somebody, it doesn’t matter who, disrespects your family or your country you have to be mad. If you’re a man you have to be mad and I wanted to smack his face that time.

“But now I have an even more important thing. To beat him on Saturday night and grab his belt, take his belt. I can talk after the fight. Maybe I can forgive him, or we can talk. I want to keep it that way. I want to just win and show him he has to be humble and he has to respect everybody.”