Umar Nurmagomedov wouldn’t be shocked if Merab Dvalishvili pulled out of their conflict at UFC 311.
After securing a dominant victory over Sean O’Malley in September to assert the bantamweight title, Dvalishvili will put his gold up for grabs towards Nurmagomedov, the No. 2 ranked contender, on January 18 in Los Angeles.
Virtually instantly after his title-winning efficiency at UFC 306, ‘The Machine’ tried to discredit Nurmagomedov’s standing as the following man in line, pointing at his lack of wins over high 15 opponents.
Sadly for Dvalishvili, he didn’t make a robust sufficient case and the promotion moved ahead with plans to present the undefeated Dagestani his first shot at UFC gold in 2025.
Throughout an interview with the UFC, Nurmagomedov spoke about the potential for his opponent pulling out of the bout.
“I will not be surprised and nobody will be surprised,” Nurmagomedov mentioned. “Even right now, I saw like commentary on Twitter, they said he will pull out, but he never pulled out before. I hope he will not and the fight is going to happen” (h/t MMA Junkie).
Umar Nurmagomedov thinks ‘The Machine’ solely needs opponents he is aware of he can beat
Nurmagomedov goes into the co-main occasion conflict with an ideal 18-0 document, six of these wins coming beneath the UFC banner. The largest of these victories got here in August when Nurmagomedov scored a decisive unanimous determination victory over Cory Sandhagen, skyrocketing him from the again of the bantamweight rankings to the second-ranked spot.
Whether or not or not Nurmagomedov deserves the shot he’s been given varies relying on who you’re speaking to, however regardless, the Dagestani believes there isn’t any path to victory for his Georgian opposition.
“I think he just wants to fight with a real guy he can beat,” Nurmagomedov mentioned. “It doesn’t imply I’m actually going to one hundred pc go contained in the cage and smash him, no. He is aware of different guys, he’ll beat. With me, it’s going to be arduous. That’s why he’s attempting to be a champion for a very long time, and he needs to combat with O’Malley, with Petr Yan, or another person as a result of these guys, straightforward cash. Me, no. For me, he has to go deep waters. With me it’s going to be a protracted night time. I cannot give him takedowns, he is not going to management me.
“I have good skills, striking skills, and I can make for him a lot of problems. That’s why, but when we go inside the cage, I will not think he’s scared of me. I will know that this is a man who will try to beat me, I will try to smash him, and it’s going to be a battle. What I understand is he doesn’t want to take a risky fight. He can beat me, it can happen. It’s not going to break me. I will be same Umar. Fight is fight. Everybody can lose. …If we’re talking about scared, I just think he doesn’t want to take risk, hard fight.”
