Merab Dvalishvili has no regrets about his fan altercation this past weekend.
At UFC 310, Dvalishvili served as one of the cornermen for teammate Aljamain Sterling’s fight, and after the bout, the UFC bantamweight champion nearly got into a fight with a fan. The altercation immediately went viral, and so later, “The Machine” released a statement through social media claiming the fan was actually a member of Umar Nurmagomedov’s team who deliberately tried to provoke him. After having some days to sleep on the situation and cool off, Dvalishvili wouldn’t change a thing.
“I was walking back with Aljamain Sterling, and some guy grabbed my shoulder, and then he had a phone, and he was filming video,” Dvalishvili told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday. “He was disrespecting me [in the] Russian language. My Russian is not good. I don’t really speak Russian. But I know the bad words. He was cursing at me, cursing my family ...
“Security was there. I really wanted to punch his face, but security also realized that he was cursing at me, security could tell this guy was talking trash, and security held me. It was so hard. I’m a man. I’m a fighter. I live in a respectful way, and some stupid dumbass disrespects me, of course, I will fight. So I wasn’t able to go close to the guy because of security, but my friend got my back, and he slapped this motherf*cker. ...
“Even Umar is sharing pictures ... He was proud of this provocative guy. Umar was proud. He was supporting some provocative fan who tried to [provoke] me. This also shows that Umar is not a good guy. If any of my friends or anybody I know tried to provoke Umar or tried to fight Umar, I would never support this. I will tell my friend or whoever, it’s none of your business. You should not mess with professional fighters. But Umar was supporting this guy.
“I’m a man first. If you come to my face and disrespect me, you’re going to get slapped. Don’t try that. I’m a man, and I will never forgive you. Even if I have to go to jail, I don’t care. I don’t care [that] I have so much to lose, I don’t care [about] this belt, I don’t care [about] this money, I don’t care [about] this legacy. I’m a man. I live a respectful way.”
Dvalishvili is set to defend his title against Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 next month, and things have already become extremely heated between the two. At the initial press conference last week, Dvalishvili launched into a tirade against his future opponent for his lack of respect. For a moment, it even looked as though the two might come to blows, but that ultimately didn’t happen, and despite the events of UFC 310, Dvalishvili insists it won’t. At least not yet.
“Now that I realize he’s really a piece of shit, I’ll move on,” Dvalishvili said when asked about future issues ahead of their fight. “Because I don’t want trouble with the UFC. I don’t want to beat Umar before the fight because he will make excuse and he might cancel this fight. I’m a company man, and I will not do anything bad, anything that will affect fights. I’m going to ignore these losers. Umar is a good fighter, but he’s not a good man. That’s my problem.”
Dvalishvili doesn’t have long to hold out. UFC 311 goes down on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. And then, once he handles business inside the cage, Dvalishvili says he’ll see about taking care of their beef outside of it.
“We’ll see after,” Dvalishvili said. “He may get a slap after the fight because the fight in the octagon is not a real fight. It’s a sport. If Umar does not apologize [to] me, it’s going to happen. Even if I have to go to Dagestan, I will go.
“I love Dagestan. I have so many friends in Dagestan, and I respect Dagestani people. They are good people, but Umar made big mistake with me, and Umar has to pay for this. ... I don’t want to fix this problem before the fight, but after the fight, I’m going to find him.”
