NO.1 contender Umar Nurmagomedov believes bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili is avoiding him.
Merab Dvalishvili captured the gold after defeating Sean O’Malley at UFC 306. Since then, Nurmagomedov has been requesting a battle with him, but Merab dismissed the fighter and said he would rather face Deiveson Figueiredo. Nurmagomedov believes Dvailishvili’s choice of opponent is due to fear, and he says it paints the champ in a poor light.
“They’re both not very good; O’Malley’s a bum in MMA, like he doesn’t have any grappling or wrestling, and he didn’t even try to fight him, he’s just waiting and running [away] – he fights like a bum… You can’t beat him [Dvalishvili] when you’re running.
“Merab is trying to avoid my name, trying to tell me that I don’t deserve (a title shot),” Nurmagomedov told Kevin Iole. “Even if the UFC will ask him to fight me or someone else, I think he will choose someone else 100 times. He’s playing games. They know that I will not fight in Ramadan and they’re telling us we’re going to fight in March. March is all Ramadan.
“It’s looking very bad. It’s looking like he’s trying to avoid (me), like he is scared. I don’t understand how the champion is trying to avoid, but if they won’t fight with me, I don’t want to wait. Summer: June, July, May – I want to fight now. I want to fight after two months, before Ramadan, and I want to be active, and we’ll see what’s going to happen.”
Nurmagomedov claims that the fighter is pushing the fight to March because he knows he will not compete because of Ramadan. However, Nurmagomedov is being patient for the time being and has opted for a grappling match until Merab changes the fight date.
“I want to be active, and I want to fight before Ramadan,” Nurmagomedov said. “Maybe January or December it’s going to be a good time for me and then after Ramadan, we’ll see. Maybe Merab fights someone else and maybe he will lose, who knows.”
Although no date has been confirmed yet, fans are hoping for a matchup between these two.
