Umar Nurmagomedov criticizes Sean O'Malley for not showing a sense of urgency in his UFC 306 loss to Merab Dvalishvili.
O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) dropped his bantamweight title to Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) by unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event in September. O’Malley was out-grappled for the most part but was able to hurt Dvalishvili with a body kick at the end of the fight.
Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) thinks O’Malley didn’t give it his all – especially with his title on the line.
“He’s a bum, brother. He’s a bum,” Nurmagomedov told Submission Radio. “He didn’t do what he has to. He was running. I don’t know, like, if you’re champion, you can’t come inside the cage and fight like that. He got out this fight; he even didn’t tire. He left cage like fresh. What are you doing, man? You have to go ahead, do everything you can do to defend your title, but you were running, you were scared, and this guy played with you.
“He kissed you. He played. You remember when he didn’t wait until the round finished and he went out. You know, it means like, hey, I want to do whatever I want with you. Merab played with him, and I don’t know how he can talk after.”
With O’Malley angling for a rematch against Dvalishvili and Dvalishvili seemingly being open to it, Nurmagomedov won’t be fazed if that’s the direction the UFC opts to go. He’s willing to fight someone else to remain active.
“I won’t be surprised. I don’t care,” Nurmagomedov said. “They can do whatever they want, and I just have my goal. I can’t fight in March. If you see (them) booking this fight in March, OK. What we’re going to do, we’re going to be active, we’re going to be active. We’re going to take out other opponent, smash him and go ahead.”
