Bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t think #2 title contender Umar Nurmagomedov has done enough in his UFC career to warrant a title shot. The ‘Young Eagle’ of course, believes Merab is running away from him and has now claimed to empathize with the champion and said, he wouldn’t want to fight him either.
The #2 ranked UFC Bantamweight has been calling out the champ to a title fight for a long time now. However, Dvalishvili has been looking for different opponents to fight for his first title defense. It was a rematch with O’Malley at first, then the buck stopped at Deiveson Figueiredo and after his win at UFC Macau, the name on his mind is Petr Yan.
Umar, who has been circling that title for some time now wasn’t too pleased as he claimed the champ was right to be afraid of him.
“If I were him, I wouldn’t want to fight me either. “
This is not the first time ‘Young Eagle‘ is trash-talking the champion either. Despite this, the champion has never had a satisfactory response to these callouts. He keeps reiterating that the Dagestani has not fought anyone significant yet. Even after winning the title at UFC Noche, when Joe Rogan asked him about fighting Umar, Merab responded with how much he loved UFC president Dana White.
Nothing much has changed since then. He had even blocked Umar on social media claiming that the fighter was being very disrespectful.
Now, as Umar awaits the end of Ramzan to be back to his fighting ways, ‘The Machine‘ cheered for Yan while watching UFC Macau.
Dvalishvili calls Yan the most deserving
The champ praised Yan as he systematically dismantled Figueiredo and asserted,
“He looked damn good all five rounds I’m excited to fight him again….He is the most deserving fight now in the bantamweight division. Let’s go. Yan vs Merab 2”
Mind you, Dvalishvili has fought and beaten Petr Yan once before. This is not to claim he’s calling out the ‘No Mercy’ because it would be an easier fight.
But he has made a habit out of calling out fighters he’s beaten before. Stylistically Yan is rather similar to O’Malley. He may not have the height but the striking department is where Yan resembles the former champion, which makes it a great match-up for Merab.
The champion is an excellent grappler and loves taking his opponents to the ground and keeping them there, something he will not be able to do with Umar. Coming from the Numragomedov school of fighting in Dagestan, the Young Eagle is an accomplished wrestler and stylistically poses the most threat to the champ.
Hopefully, someday he can get his shot at the title. But as of now, Merab has made up his mind and is pushing for a March 8 fight date, which is exactly two years since he last fought Yan.
