Merab Dvalishvili has reiterated to fans that he is very serious when he talks about pre-fight injuries he has suffered ahead of UFC 311.
The bantamweight champion defends his belt for the first time on Saturday night against the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov. He won the belt from Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 back in September, and has been clear that he wanted more time to recover from lingering niggles before this fight.
However, when Nurmagomedov pushed for an earlier date due to the impending Ramadan that would hinder his training, the UFC forced the issue. And Dvalishvili admits that he will be entering the octagon with minor injuries.
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Merab Dvalishvili opens up about ‘serious’ injury concerns ahead of UFC 311
While nothing is so bad that he would risk pulling out of the fight, Merab Dvalishvili has been more open than most fighters while discussing his training camp issues. He notes that he has had just six weeks to prepare and has been honest about the knocks he’s been picking up.
He began to concern fans when he mentioned needing treatment during a video over the Christmas period. He was being denied access to the UFC Performance Institute while his opponent trained there, and made headlines with his off the cuff comment.
He has since reiterated the claim, which has fans speculating as to just what might be the issue in question. Speaking with Bloody Elbow in an exclusive chat in his role as a Stake Ambassador, he refused to be drawn on what exactly the injury is, for fear of ‘panicking’ fans.
However, he did reassure fans by explaining that: “I’m good now, I will post the injury or whatever after the fight, but before, I don’t want to show and panic people. You know, the injury was serious, like, not a joke.
“Because I take a fight on six weeks’ notice I was training hard and I get a lot of pain banged up and I was dealing with some other injuries too, but thank God now I’m OK and ready to go.”
Merab Dvalishvili wanted later fight date for first title defence
All in all, Dvalishvili has been clear about how he would have preferred a different fight date. The UFC tends to put title fights on pay-per-view, meaning he could have theoretically competed in Sydney next month at UFC 312 or Vegas in March at UFC 313 and still been on for an active year of three fights.
“I was ready to fight and come back after five or six months, like every champion does,” he continued. “They even take more time. But when I said I was going to fight February or March, Umar started complaining and blaming me and disrespecting me.
“When I said fight February or March, he said February fight was in Australia and March was Ramadan. I had no idea because last year, Ramadan was in May. It’s not my problem also – I’m a champion.
“So Umar wanted to fight January, and UFC asked me. Then I went to UFC and I said, OK, I will step up. I love UFC so no problem.”
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