Merab
Dvalishvili has some unexplained animosity towards Umar
Nurmagomedov. 

Dvalishvili lost his bantamweight title in a rematch against
Petr
Yan at
UFC 323 this past December. Dvalishvili now expects to
challenge Yan for the title in a trilogy. Meanwhile, former
champion Sean O’Malley is scheduled to fight top contender Aiemann
Zahabi at
UFC White House on June 14. 

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Dvalishvili was recently attending a presser for his upcoming
wrestling match against Frankie
Edgar at RAF 9. Dvalishvili was asked if he would consider a
rematch against Nurmagomedov in case the winner of O’Malley vs.
Zahabi jumped the queue for the next title shot. Dvalishvili
confidently doubled down on his claims of a confirmed trilogy
against Yan. “The Machine” then completely dismissed
Nurmagomedov.

Bad Blood Lingers

“What kind of question is this?” Dvalishvsili said. “I’m sure you
know I’m fighting Petr Yan, it’s
gonna be trilogy. He beat me last fight and we have to fight again.
But who the f—k is Umar, bro? Who cares about him?”

When Dvalishvili (21-5) first won the title against O’Malley in
2024, the then-unbeaten Nurmagomedov started calling for a title
shot against the Georgian. Dvalishvili initially turned down
Nurmagomedov, calling for a rematch against O’Malley instead. Fans
soon started accusing Dvalishvili of ducking Nurmagomedov, who was
then considered to be his biggest threat. Dvalishvili eventually
accepted the fight and successfully defended his title against
Nurmagomedov, handing the Dagestani his first professional
loss.

Dvalishvili repeatedly accused Nurmagomedov of disrespecting him,
although there was barely any bad blood between the two apart from
the customary trash talk. Dvalishvili repeatedly clarified that he
has immense respect for Umar’s teammates Khabib
Nurmagomedov and Islam
Makhachev. However, Dvalishvili didn’t harbor the same respect
towards Umar and accused him of receiving privileges for being
related to Khabib. Nurmagomedov (20-1) has rebounded with wins over
Mario
Bautista and Deiveson
Figueiredo since his loss to Dvalishvili. 

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

Internationaler Kampfkunst und Kampfsport Kleinanzeiger