Khabib isn’t impressed with Merab’s behavior since becoming a champion, and suggested the Georgian fighter has good reason to be ‘nervous’ against his cousin Umar at UFC 311.
Khabib Nurmagomedov believes Merab Dvalishvili may already be cracking under the pressure of being a UFC champion.
Dvalishvili just won the bantamweight title back in September off of Sean O’Malley at the big UFC 306 Sphere event. He’d planned on taking several months off to enjoy being champion, but with the belt comes responsibilities. The UFC asked him to defend against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 in January, and Merab ended up accepting.
Not without a lot of complaints about Umar’s worthiness as a contender, though. According to “The Machine,” Nurmagomedov landed his title shot off his last name and relationship as cousin to Khabib. In a recent interview shared by Red Corner MMA, Khabib waved off those accusations.
“This is his problem, Merab’s problem,” Nurmagomedov said. “I think when he was beginning his career, he was acting good. When he became champion, he cannot deal with this because life changing. Before champion and after champion there is two life. You have to deal with this.”
“About Umar ‘gift,’ Umar is 18-0 and on a six fight win streak in the UFC,” he added. “And they gave him a very tough opponent in his last fight, five round main event versus Cory Sandhagen. I think Umar deserve.”
“I don’t know why Merab nervous. Umar here not because he is my cousin. He’s here because he’s 18-0 and 6-0 in the UFC. Umar wants to create his legacy. He will show January 18. He will show why Merab nervous.”
After a brief disappearance from the world of MMA in 2023, Khabib seems fully enmeshed once again in the sport. UFC 311 will be a particularly busy event for him: he’s cornering his cousin Umar for his 135 pound title fight against Merab Dvalishvili, and he’ll be cornering Islam Makhachev’s 155 pound title defense against Arman Tsarukyan as well.
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