Merab Dvalishvili claims the UFC have made him fight months earlier than he planned for his first bantamweight title defence.
The Georgian defeated Sean O’Malley to win the belt back in September at UFC 306, and now defends for the first time against the unbeaten Umar Nurmagomedov next week. But he claims that due to injuries that he has repeatedly mentioned, he would have preferred a date in February or even March.
Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov have had an intense pre-fight build-up, with the champion believing his challenger has not earned the shot at the belt. He would have preferred to face O’Malley again, or the currently in-form former champion Petr Yan.
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Merab Dvalishvili claims he was pushed into UFC 311 defence by promotion
Merab Dvalishvili has not been a big fan of his matchup with Umar Nurmagomedov since it was made last year, and also wasn’t keen on the January date. He believes that there are more serious contenders out there, and also that he could have been given more time to overcome some injuries.
Speaking with Michael Bisping on the Believe You Me podcast, he explained: “UFC needed me so I stepped up and said ‘no problem’. I am grateful for UFC so it’s no problem but for me the best option was to fight in February or March.
“Because I was dealing with some injuries and also Aljo [Aljamain Sterling, his teammate] had a fight in December and it was short time from December to January. It was only one month to prepare and I wasn’t focused, I didn’t have a camp.
“Umar was training for Song Yadong but he ended up not fighting him and fighting for the belt now. So here we are, and it’s all good.”
Merab Dvalishvili has previously claimed to have an injury heading into UFC 311
This isn’t the first time that Merab has mentioned an ‘injury’ in recent memory. The Georgian was blocked from entering the UFC Performance Institute around Christmas time as Nurmagomedov’s team were training in there, and claimed in a video that he needed to get in to receive treatment.
“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,” Dvalishvili said on Instagram. “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.”
Umar Nurmagomedov also has injury issues heading into UFC 311 co-main event
And it isn’t just Dvalishvili who is struggling with being hurt heading into this fight. Nurmagomedov also suffered a broken arm late last year, and sparked controversy when he discussed how he wouldn’t have fought through it if it weren’t for getting a title shot this January.
“After I was in Dagestan, I punch my arm,” He told ESPN MMA. “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.”
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