UFC bantamweight kingpin Merab Dvalishvili recently revealed that there’s a former rival he simply can’t bring himself to cheer for.
In a candid conversation with Daniel Cormier, Dvalishvili said he usually backs his former opponents as he believed their victories after facing him would help restore their reputations as top fighters. ‘The Machine’ also said that despite his differences with Petr Yan, he still favors ‘No Mercy’ when the latter enters the octagon.
However, there is one UFC fighter that Dvalishvili never chooses, and that is Umar Nurmagomedov. Umar and Dvalishvili squared off earlier this year at UFC 311, and the challenger lost via unanimous decision. The 29-year-old claimed after the defeat that his performance was sub-par as he broke his arm between rounds.
Previously, Merab Dvalishvili was also called a ‘fake champion’ by the Russian fighter.
To date, ‘The Machine’ has also taken several digs at Umar, before and after their fight, and the beef has not been squashed. He recently told ‘DC’:
“The only guy I don’t cheer for is Umar, you know, when he was fighting [Mario] Bautista, I cheered for Bautista. He [Umar] is a bit spoiled… He lets others use his Twitter to target me.”
The MMA world is well aware that Ali Abdelaziz uses his clients’ accounts to promote or build up fights, even though Dvalishvili did not specify who used Umar’s account.
Check out Merab Dvalishvili’s comments below:
Merab Dvalishvili does not want to give Umar Nurmagomedov a second chance
If Merab Dvalishvili gets past Petr Yan in their bantamweight title rematch this weekend at UFC 323, ‘The Machine’ will next look to fight rising contenders instead of rematches.
He has expressed interest in fighting Payton Talbott and Song Yadong if the two win their upcoming fights. Besides them, the Georgian phenomenon wants to fight Aiemann Zahabi, the brother of Firas Zahabi. Aiemann is on a seven-fight UFC win streak and is currently the No. 7 contender at bantamweight.
Dvalishvili has no plans to move up to featherweight anytime soon.
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