Daniel Cormier Dismisses Sean O’Malley’s Claim About Merab Dvalishvili ‘Being Afraid’ of Umar Nurmagomedov

Daniel Cormier has rushed to the rescue of Merab Dvalishvili after the bantamweight champion was called out and mocked for avoiding a fight with Umar Nurmagomedov.

The champion has been very vocal about how he does not want to give Umar as he does not think the #2 bantamweight fighter doesn’t deserves to fight for the title with only one win against a top-ranked opponent.

So ‘The Machine’ has been calling out other fighters like Sean O’Malley and Petr Yan for his first title defense. However, O’Malley himself believes that this behavior from the champ stems from a ‘fear’ to fight a Nurmagomedov.

When DC heard these claims, he rubbished O’Malley’s remarks and asserted that Merab wasn’t afraid of anyone.

“Sean O’Malley is wrong… Merab is not afraid of anybody, he’s not. With the way this guy trains, the way that this guy lives, the way that he fights, his style will present issues for anyone.”

In fact, it was a fighter like O’Malley, the long, elusive striker with good takedown defense that ‘The Machine‘ would have had a problem with, but he overcame that problem with ease when the time came. Umar actually is a far more similar to Merab stylistically, with marginally better striking.

Regardless the champ is adamant, he doesn’t want to take him on. As these conversations continue, Merab has doubled down on his attempt to diss him with a funny sketch.

Merab goes off on Umar

Instagram skits are starting to become Merab’s trademark as he keeps uploading them to troll his opponents or sometimes even himself. He had done so to get O’Malley’s attention when the former champion wouldn’t give him his day in the sun. He even posted one calling ‘Suga’ his son just days after taking his title.

And now he has posted another one trying to explain to Nurmagomedov why he doesn’t deserve the title shot.

“Umar, get to work. You’re not on my level. Earn your title shot like the rest of us, who’s last names don’t get gifts.”

So it looks like the champ will be running it against Petr Yan one more time in March or April when Umar will have excused himself from the octagon to be with his family for Ramzan.