UFC bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili recently went out for a run on what appeared to be a cold and dreary day.

Now, most of us wouldn’t have been outdoors in the first place, but perhaps this is what separates mixed martial artists from the rest of us, particularly someone like Dvalishvili who’s won five consecutive fights.

And out of the minority of us who actually would have been outside running, it’s a fairly safe bet most wouldn’t have jogged past a frozen lake and thought, “Hey, I should jump into that.”

But that’s exactly what our friend from the Republic of Georgia decided to do — and filmed it for a social media post, to boot.

Only the hardiest of folk would make such a plunge, but our friend Merab made an important miscalculation: He thought he was going straight through slush and into the water, but instead a layer of ice gave way to submerged tree branches. And “The Machine” looked mortal as he emerged with his face cut up as if he had been through a grueling 25 minutes in the octagon.

I thought a great day to train and run in the park. Then I saw a pond which I thought was snow and water. BUT it turned out to be all ice and tree branches sticking out. As soon as I broke threw the ice I felt my skin peeling off . BUT nothing more painful then when they stapled my skin back together! Its all good now … feeling great

Indeed, as the accompanying video and photos show, Dvalishvili (12-4 MMA, 5-2 UFC) ended up with an unexpected hospital visit, where he got stitched up. Fortunately he wasn’t seriously injured. You can see his polar plunge and the aftermath below:

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