John Wood is confident Merab Dvalishvili would definitively beat Umar Nurmagomedov in a rematch.

Dvalishvili's first bantamweight title defense came over Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in a tightly contested battle. He then submitted Sean O'Malley at UFC 316, and overwhelmed Cory Sandhagen in Saturday's UFC 320 co-main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) is looking to run things back with Dvalishvili (21-4 MMA, 14-2 UFC) if he can get past Mario Bautista at UFC 321 on Oct. 25, but Wood warns him that it won't go well for him.

"I think he finishes Umar. I think he destroys Umar," Wood told Submission Radio. "It's way worse for Umar. People try to make excuses for whatever Umar's camp had going on. That was the worst Merab that you've ever seen. That was the most unhealthy, sick, injured Merab that you will ever see take a short-notice fight: hand, back, rib, shins, shins, staph infection.

"Everything you could possibly go through, and he still went out there and handled it just like that. And that's one that you don't want to have angry Merab on your ass - and he's not a huge fan of some of the stuff that they say, some of the stuff he does. I think that goes in a much more violent fashion, and I think there's a finish that would probably be coming out of that fight."

For now, Dvalishvili is eyeing a different rematch before the end of the year. "The Machine" would rather run things back with Petr Yan in December in hopes of notching his fourth title defense of the year.