Is Merab Dvalishvili carrying too much emotion into his upcoming clash against Umar Nurmagomedov?
In September, Dvalishvili delivered a dominant performance against ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 to claim the coveted bantamweight belt. Now, ‘The Machine’ has his first defense lined up and it’ll come against none other than undefeated Dagestani sensation Umar Nurmagomedov — the cousin of UFC Hall of Famer and former lightweight titleholder Khabib Nurmagomedov.
In Las Vegas for Saturday’s final pay-per-view event of the year, Dvalishvili had to be separated from Nurmagomedov backstage after getting into a heated confrontation ahead of the UFC 311 on-sale press conference.
Umar: “I will be in Vegas, call me. Anytime.”
Merab: “Come here, I’m here now.”
Umar: “Here, a lot of security. Call me, we’re gonna see.”
Merab: “Okay I will call you.”
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) December 6, 2024
Later that night, Dvalishvili got into an altercation with a man he claims is a member of Nurmagomedov’s team. The incident occurred shortly after he cornered Aljamain Sterling for his fight against Movsar Evloev at UFC 310.
Helwani flabbergasted by Merab Dvalishvili’s actions over the weekend
Commenting on Dvalishvili’s actions over the weekend, MMA journalist Ariel Helwani suggested that ‘The Machine’ may be toting around a little too much emotion going into his first fight as the 135-pound king.
“All fired up. I have to wonder, and we’ll talk to him about this: is he too fired up? Is he too emotional? Very clear, he didn’t want to come back in December, he didn’t want to maybe come back in January,” Helwani said during a recent episode of his show. “Maybe he doesn’t think that Umar deserves the fight. You rarely see him that emotional in front of, you know, the public, if you will.
“You see him getting into altercations and whatnot, but not at press conferences and whatnot. He is quite fired up in that moment. That is going to be an amazing scene in Los Angeles.”
Dvalishvili vs. Nurmagomedov will co-main event UFC 311 on January 18 with the evening’s headliner featuring the return of lightweight titleholder Islam Makhachev. The ‘Dagestani Destroyer’ puts his gold up for grabs against Arman Tsarukyan in a rematch more than five years in the making.
