Umar Nurmagomedov might be heading into the biggest fight of his career with a serious injury, if a newly-reinstated interview is anything to go by.
The rising Russian star is set to take on Merab Dvalishivili at UFC 311 for his bantamweight title in the co-main event of the first pay-per-view of the year. He is undefeated and has risen through the ranks to earn his shot at the belt, which came after his UFC Tampa main event with Song Yadong was cancelled.
But it appears that all may not be well in the Nurmagomedov camp as he prepares for the most important night of his life…
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Umar Nurmagomedov details injury worries ahead of Merab Dvalishvili fight at UFC 311
In a recent interview with ESPN MMA and the official UFC YouTube channel, Umar Nurmagomedov discussed an injury he had suffered late last year. His management warned him not to fight, but he was keen to compete before Ramadan, which takes place in March.
Host Brett Okamoto questioned how he was now at the point of facing Dvalishvili after previously claiming that he wouldn’t be able to compete in a different fight in January because of an injury. Had the title fight not emerged, the Russian says he would have taken a fight to stay busy this month regardless.
“After I was in Dagestan, I punch my arm,” He told Okamoto. “I go to show the doctor and I show them. They did, like, not an MRI but when they check bone? An X-Ray? They did X-ray and they said, ‘You broke [your arm]’.
“You know after that, after 20 days I go again even when I was broken, I was running. I want to still be in shape, you know. Even that time I try run, try to do shadow boxing, try to be in shape. And after 20 days I go again, and it’s become much better.
“Even my punches and other things, I do grapple, I do wrestling class. Everything I can do. Then I called my manager Ali [Abdelaziz] and I said to him ‘hey, I want to fight’. He said ‘but we said we’re injured’ and I said ‘I told you, take this fight’.
“My manager and my brother said ‘are you crazy? You can’t fight like that’ and they said no. They asked again, they called me again ‘will you fight with Merab?’ Of course, I already called with Ali and said make it happen. I want to fight in Ramadan, if Merab wants to fight in Ramadan I want to be active.”
Fans notice Umar Nurmagomedov interview mentioning injury has been deleted
The interview was mysteriously scrubbed from the internet for a day or so, before being reinstated this morning. Okamoto, ESPN and the UFC have not yet commented on why it was taken down, and it appears no cuts were made in the reupload.
The discussion had not caused widespread discussion in the MMA world over Christmas, and had been uploaded for a few days before being taken down yesterday. But some social media sleuths such as Kenny Okoye claimed that the decision was made to cover up the injury.
In actual fact, during the same interview, Nurmagomedov theorised that Dvalishvili would be the one to pull out of the fight. Asked if he would be surprised to see a pullout, the Russian replied: “I will not be surprised and nobody will be.
“I saw like commentary or on Twitter, they said he will pull out. But he’s never pulled out before so I hope he will not and the fight is going to happen.”
Merab Dvalishvili also harbouring injury heading into UFC 311
Just last week, it was Dvalishvili who was claiming to be injured heading into the UFC 311 co-main event. He shared a video to social media where he said that the UFC were not allowing him access to the UFC Performance Institute as Nurmagomedov and his team were training there.
And he also dropped news of an injury, telling fans: “I’m here out front of the UFC P.I., and security don’t let me go in because they said, ‘Umar Nurmagomedov is inside,’ and they are protecting him. Don’t worry, guys, I’m not going to smash him before the fight.
“But January 18 is a different story. I’m not able to go in UFC P.I. because I was supposed to get treatment for my injury, I was supposed to sign some cards, I was supposed to eat lunch with my friends. What the heck? I’m going to smash this guy because of all the disrespect, all the lies he was saying.
“You better show up, Umar. Okay, today you will be protected. Don’t worry, I’m not going to punch you before the fight. January 18 no one will protect you.”
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