Merab Dvalishvili has been very vocal about his thoughts on the merit of Umar Nurmagomedov’s title shot.
The UFC bantamweight champion doesn’t see Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) deserving of the title opportunity, which is set to play out in the co-main event of UFC 311 on Jan. 18 in Inglewood, Calif. (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+). Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) thinks there are better deserving contenders in line, and some fans have agreed with his rhetoric.
Javier Mendez, trainer of Nurmagomedov, disagrees with Dvalishvili’s claims.
“This is what I say: When he fought Cory Sandhagen, UFC said that whoever wins that fight would fight for the title – whether it was going to be )Sean) O’Malley or Merab,” Mendez told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. “That’s what the UFC told Umar and Sandhagen. So why now that the fight is over, and Umar won, why is it that what UFC had said should no longer be true? UFC wants this fight. That’s why they brought Umar to the Sphere, right?
“When (Dvalishvili) won, and they interviewed him, and they said this is your next challenge, Merab said, ‘Oh, Dana needs to talk to me. He needs to get to know me as a person, and then we’ll talk about it.’ Why? The UFC wanted this fight. Umar didn’t say, ‘Hey, I need to fight for the title if I beat Sandhagen.’ No, they were the ones that said the winner would go for the title next, so that’s all we’re doing. Umar told me, ‘Look, coach. If they don’t give me the title, I just want to fight before Ramadan.’ That’s all. He just wanted to fight.”
On the flip side of this debate, some fans have suggested that Dvalishvili’s criticism doesn’t come from a place of wanting to see fairness play out in the division, but fear of losing his title.
“I don’t believe he’s scared of Umar. He’s a champion, and the champion doesn’t fear anyone,” Mendez said.
The Team Eagle camp has been famous for its high-level, sambo-based Dagestan fighters. It’s often assumed that a Team Eagle fighter will always enter about with a wrestling advantage.
However, this UFC 311 matchups is interesting, given that Dvalishvili is one of the most effective wrestlers today, and even out wrestled Olympic wrestling gold medalist Henry Cejudo last February at UFC 298.
Mendez thinks Nurmagomedov will have the advantage in both the striking and grappling department. He doesn’t think Nurmagomodov will struggle on the ground.
“The path to victory for us is both – we need to do both,” Mendez said. “Merab is really good at taking the fight to the ground, so I think we’ll have to fight in both areas, and I know that we’re going to beat in both striking and grappling. The thing that he has better than us is the conditioning, but you know what, we don’t need to do more than five rounds. We’re not doing 10 or seven, we’re doing five – only five. Umar can do five hard rounds no problem.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
