UFC bantamweight kingpin Merab Dvalishvili lately revealed there’s one former rival he merely can not carry himself to cheer for.
In a candid chat with Daniel Cormier, Dvalishvili shared that he often roots for his former opponents, believing their victories after dealing with him assist restore their reputations as high fighters. ‘The Machine’ additionally stated that despite his differences with Petr Yan, he nonetheless roots for ‘No Mercy’ at any time when the latter enters the octagon.
Nonetheless, there’s one UFC fighter whom Dvalishvili by no means roots for, and that’s Umar Nurmagomedov. Umar and Dvalishvili locked horns earlier this 12 months at UFC 311, and the challenger misplaced by way of unanimous choice. The 29-year-old claimed after the loss that his efficiency was subpar as a result of he broke his arm in between rounds.
Beforehand, Merab Dvalishvili was additionally referred to as a “faux champion” by the Russian fighter.
So far, ‘The Machine’ has additionally taken a number of digs at Umar, earlier than and after their struggle, and the meat has not been squashed. Just lately, he instructed ‘DC’:
“The one man I don’t cheer for is Umar, you realize. When he was preventing [Mario] Bautista, I used to be cheering for Bautista. He [Umar] is somewhat spoiled… He lets others use his Twitter to focus on me.”
The MMA world is effectively conscious of Ali Abdelaziz utilizing his shoppers’ accounts to advertise or construct up fights, even when Dvalishvili didn’t specify who used Umar’s account.
Try Merab Dvalishvili’s feedback beneath:
Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t wish to give Umar Nurmagomedov a second probability
This weekend at UFC 323, if Merab Dvalishvili will get previous Petr Yan of their bantamweight title rematch, ‘The Machine’ needs to struggle surging contenders subsequent as an alternative of rematches.
He has expressed curiosity in preventing Payton Talbott and Track Yadong if the 2 win their upcoming fights. Aside from them, the Georgian phenom needs to struggle Aiemann Zahabi, the brother of Firas Zahabi. Aiemann is on a seven-fight UFC win streak and is presently the No.7-ranked bantamweight contender.
Dvalishvili has no plans of transferring as much as featherweight anytime quickly.
