Umar Nurmagomedov Dares Merab Dvalishvili to Stop Dodging Fights and Own the Champion Title

UFC’s bantamweight division is certainly heating up with top contender Umar Nurmagomedov publicly going after the champion, Merab Dvalishvili. While the Georgian is yet to be fully sold on Umar’s credibility, the undefeated Russian recently issued a challenge, telling the Georgian to stop dodging him.

Umar once again took to Twitter to have a go at Merab and asked him to own being a champion instead of running from it.

“What’s the point of being called a ‘champion’ if you’re too scared to face the next in line? Dodging fights only shows one thing—fear. Real champions don’t run.” 

Earlier last week, the Russian proposed a title fight for January, since Ramadan falls in March, and before that Australia will host the UFC in February.

Umar alleged that knowing Ramadan is in March, Merab would insist on fighting that month but asked the champion to fight him in January in Los Angeles, asserting that there’s ample amount of time to prepare.

Meanwhile, the champion didn’t quite give a green signal, prompting Umar to put forth another challenge this week.

Regardless of the constant pokes, Merab is more inclined to give Sean O’Malley another opportunity but has revealed that Umar’s baseless allegations have lost his respect towards the Russian.

“You lost my respect as a man” – Merab fires back at Umar

Merab ‘The Machine’ Dvalishvili outwrestled Sean O’Malley to capture his belt at UFC 306 in Vegas. Consequently, Umar after his win against Cory Sandhagen rose up to the occasion, challenging the champion to a title fight.

However, things turned ugly when the Russian accused Merab of ducking him as the champion refused to acknowledge Umar’s contender ship, labelling it a case of nepotism.

Merab then went on Twitter to claim that he had already said yes to the fight twice.

“Umar Now not only are you disrespectful , you are a liar. If UFC offered you to fight with me 2 times – show the fans the contract and the dates. They offered me to fight you right after I beat Petr Yan with a broken hand in 6 weeks. I accepted the fight verbally even thought i was no. 1 contender and you were no. 13 rank and even with broken hand. Ultimately the doctor said no to this and I had surgery.”

He further added,

“So lets see the contract of the second offering??!!! So if the UFC is gifting you the title defense – wtf are you talking trash and with disrespect? I’m done with you now because you keep lying – you lost my respect as a man and a martial artist. I will wait to hear from the UFC.”