Georgian wrecking ball, Merab Dvalishvili is on cloud nine defeating Sean O’Malley on the biggest stage to capture the bantamweight title at UFC Noche. And despite being initially hesitant, the newly crowned champion has now announced that he’ll defend his title against anyone the UFC wants, even if that’s the “undeserving” Umar Nurmagomedov!
Earlier ‘The Machine’ had claimed that the Russian’s ascension was without merit as he had only defeated Cory Sandhagen among the top 15 bantamweights in the promotion. But as the days pass, Merab seems to have had a change of heart, courtesy of being a company man.
“Guys- I hear all of you! I am a company man. Whoever the UFC puts in front of me , I will fight as I always do ,even if I don’t think they deserve the next shot. Let’s Go.”
Guys- I hear all of you! I am a company man. Whoever the UFC puts in front of me , I will fight as I always do ,even if I don't think they deserve the next shot. Let's Go 🦾
— Merab “The Machine” Dvalishvili (@MerabDvalishvil) September 18, 2024
While he does seem to have come around on Nurmagomedov, it is still likely that Merab continues to support Deiveson Figueredo for his next title defense as he believes the Brazilian has done more to deserve being in the title’s spotlight.
Even when he was asked about his first title defense being against Nurmagomedov following his win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, Merab had rambled on about loving Dana White a lot without ever getting to the point.
And while he does claim to be a company man and will do whatever is asked of him, he did stoke people’s sentiments when he claimed that Umar Nurmagomedov wasn’t Russian, much to the annoyance of lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev.
Makhachev lays down cover fire for Umar
Before agreeing to facing the Nurmagomedov in the octagon, the Georgian riled up the community by claiming the former was not who he claimed to be. In fact, during the post-fight press conference after UFC 306, Dvalishvili claimed that Umar was Dagestani and not Russian as had been originally claimed.
This however did not sit well with Umar’s AKA teammate and the reigning UFC lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev. Reacting to the statement, the fellow Dagestani said that since Merab lived in the USA, he had no idea what he was talking about.
“(Merab) lives in America. He has no clue what he’s talking about. Dagestan is a part of Russia.”
Giving a lesson on geography, the lightweight champion enlightened Merab by stating the obvious. But it doesn’t matter now, the die has been cast and the two will fight, no matter the circumstances.
Besides, this will be an entertaining fight, maybe not for casuals, but it will be truly awesome to see two of the best wrestlers in the UFC roster just go at it for 5 rounds of a title fight. It’s a rarer than the Halley’s comet!
