Umar
Nurmagomedov is eager to stay active instead of waiting for a
title shot against Merab
Dvalishvili.
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Dvalishvili recently won the bantamweight title with a dominant
unanimous decision win over Sean O’Malley in the main event at
UFC
306 on Sept. 14. Joe Rogan asked Dvalishvili about potentially
defending his strap against Nurmagomedov immediately afterwards as
the camera focused on the Dagestani, who was attending the
event.
While the UFC appears keen on setting up a clash between
Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov, the newly-crowned champ has been
critical of the undefeated contender for a while now. Dvalishvili
has accused Nurmagomedov of being promoted by the UFC due to his
relation to his cousin, Khabib
Nurmagomedov. “The Machine” also stalled Rogan when asked about
a potential Dvalishvili matchup and later went on to call out
former flyweight champ Deiveson
Figueiredo.
While Dvalishvili’s camp is rallying hard for the champ to call his
own shots, Nurmagomedov’s camp sounded confident that he is next in
line for the gold bid. However, that could have potentially changed
with Nurmagomedov expressing interest in staying active instead of
waiting for the title shot. The 28-year-old recently borrowed a
page from his legendary cousin’s book to issue a challenge to
anyone who can make weight.
“I don’t want to wait until next year; I want to fight,”
Nurmagomedov told Gorilla Energy. “Anyone, even if it’s King Kong
— let them make weight and we’ll fight. I really don’t care. I
don’t want to wait for these guys. I have my own goal. I’m going to
be the greatest, so I have to be active!”
Nurmagomedov has finished four of his seven UFC wins so far and is
fresh off a unanimous decision win over Cory
Sandhagen. Meanwhile, Dvalishvili is riding the longest winning
streak (10) in UFC bantamweight history, which includes one finish.