Merab Dvalishvili has gone on a rant about rival Umar Nurmagomedov as tensions continue to grow between the two.
Right now, Merab Dvalishvili is one of the most exciting fighters in all of mixed martial arts. He is the UFC bantamweight champion and has successfully defended the strap against both Umar Nurmagomedov and Sean O’Malley. At UFC 320, he’ll attempt to defend it for the third time when he goes up against Cory Sandhagen.
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In the midst of that, however, Umar Nurmagomedov has also been calling for another crack at Dvalishvili. The first meeting between them was pretty competitive but in the end, Merab was able to grind out a well-deserved victory.
In a recent interview, Dvalishvili didn’t have many nice things to say about Nurmagomedov – and that’s putting it lightly.
Dvalishvili goes after Nurmagomedov
“Umar is spoiled,” Dvalishvili said in an interview with Daniel Cormier. “He’s a good fighter. Of course he got my attention, everyone’s attention, before he signed with the UFC. We all know him because of Khabib, a great champion, a legend of the sport. Of course it was easy: UFC signed him straight. (away). There are many fighters who have to go through Dana White’s Contender Series or ‘(Dana White:)’ Lookin’ for a Fight,’ or ‘Ultimate Fighter.’
“He signed with the UFC, and of course he was fighting good. But he was fighting unranked guys, and after they gave him a very high-ranked guy, Cory Sandhagen, then he was talking sh*t and being disrespectful to me and some other fighters. He told me, ‘You are old, Dominick Cruz is old, Cody Garbrandt old, Henry Cejudo is old’ to my face. He was telling me, ‘I want to fight you.’ I said, ‘Me? I want to fight for the belt. I don’t want to go back and fight behind (in the rankings).’”
Quotes via MMA Junkie
