Aljamain
Sterling thinks Merab
Dvalishvili will retain his bantamweight title against Umar
Nurmagomedov.
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Dvalishvili will defend his strap against Nurmagomedov in the
co-main event at UFC 311
on Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. Many expect
Nurmagomedov to pose the biggest threat to Dvalishvili so far with
his strong wrestling base and well-rounded skillset. However,
Sterling believes fans are overestimating the level of competition
from Nurmagomedov, at least in terms of the wrestling.
Nurmagomedov’s most high-caliber win so far came against Cory
Sandhagen, who was able to defend the Dagestani’s takedown
attempts multiple times. Based on that fight, Sterling doesn’t see
Nurmagomedov posing a threat to Dvalishvili, who also comes from a
grappling background.
“I mean if Cory
Sandhagen could get ready, a guy who’s not coming from a
grappling background at all – what do you think Merab is gonna do?”
Sterling said on his YouTube channel. “You guys just don’t know
man, you guys just don’t know. Respectfully, you guys just don’t
know… People can say Umar’s not like these other guys. Guess what?
Merab is not like these other guys. There’s a method to the
madness, and you guys are gonna see in a few days, again. It’s just
gonna be smart, gonna be calculated, take our time. Of course, it’s
a fight, anything can happen. But I do think the odds are in out
favor for this one. We just got to go out there and perform.”
Sterling and Dvalishvili are teammates at the Serra Longo Fight
Team in Long Island, New York. Dvalishvili was long deserving of a
title shot but avoided it during Sterling’s title reign as the
bantamweight champ. “Funkmaster” was dethroned by Sean O’Malley via
knockout at UFC 292 in 2023. Dvalishvili went on to defeat O’Malley
via a dominant decision at UFC 306 this past September. Meanwhile,
Sterling has since moved up to featherweight where he beat Calvin
Kattar via decision and dropped a verdict against Movsar
Evloev.