Merab Dvalishvili not planning to just wrestle Umar Nurmagomedov: ‘I’m going to break this guy’
Merab Dvalishvili’s first title defense is just around the corner and he expects Umar Nurmagomedov to fall like all the rest.
When Dvalishvili makes the walk to the octagon for the UFC 311 co-main event on Jan. 18, he’ll be doing so on an 11-fight win streak, which was capped off by his bantamweight championship triumph over Sean O’Malley this past September. Despite initially not sounding enthusiastic about being matched up with Nurmagomedov—currently No. 1 at 135 pounds in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings—Dvalishvili is fully focused on the undefeated challenger now and he expects his skill set will prove to be superior on fight night.
“I’m going to show Georgian wrestling and Georgian toughness and I’m going to break the guy,” Dvalishvili told Michael Bisping on the Believe You Me podcast. “It’s going to be a great fight. Umar is a good fighter, but usually when I fight against good fighters and against tough fighters I always show up. As long as I’m healthy, I’m good, and I’ll be fine. It’s going to be a great fight.
“I’m not expecting any easy fight from Umar. As a fighter, I always respect him, and I’ve always known he’s a good fighter, and I’m excited to fight a good fighter like Umar. He’s undefeated and I’m going to change his record.”
Dvalishvili’s run to the top of his division has been marked by his powerful wrestling and relentless pace, which has carried him to wins over O’Malley, Henry Cejudo, Petr Yan, Jose Aldo, and Marlon Moraes, among others. Against O’Malley, Dvalishvili expertly used his grappling to defuse O’Malley’s vaunted striking en route to a commanding decision win.
However, when Dvalishvili squares off with Nurmagomedov, he expects to show off all aspects of his game.
“I’m ready for striking,” Dvalishvili said. “I’m not going to look to take him down, control, lay on top like O’Malley. I’m going to punch his face, kick his legs, keep it on the feet, and I’m going to show a good fight. It’s going to be a great fight, even if it’s going to be a lot of scrapping, a lot of exchanges. I believe it’s going to be Fight of the Night.”
Over the years, Dvalishvili has shown he’s not just a dominant competitor in the cage, he’s also a jokester outside of it. The Georgian native frequently posts comedic videos on his social media channels that poke fun at his rivals.
The lead-up to UFC 311 has been mostly devoid of such antics and Dvalishvili has a good reason for that.
“I’m extra focused for my next fight,” Dvalishvili said. “Also, Umar, he doesn’t deserve [for me] to make fun of him. I’m not going to joke with him. It’s serious, it’s a serious, serious battle, and I don’t have time for jokes now. … At first, I didn’t want this fight because I’m like, how am I going to make fun of him, how am I going to joke with him, he’s from a different world, he doesn’t understand, especially he disrespected me now.
“But I don’t think we have to promote this fight. I don’t have to promote this fight, I’m a champion now. He has to promote this fight if he wants, but not to disrespect me and call me fake champion. We are fighting co-main event, but I think most fans are excited for our fight most.”
Should Dvalishvili defeat Nurmagomedov, it would remove a major hurdle from his path. But that doesn’t mean the champion sees clear sailing ahead as he’s previously mentioned wanting rematches with O’Malley and Yan, and he also has his eye on fresh challenges.
“[Mario] Bautista, he has a seven-fight win streak now and he’s a good contender also,” Dvalishvili said. “And then I did beat Petr, but rematch will be interesting now. O’Malley will have a different game plan now. He landed two punches or something, I felt it. He can really knock people out and he has really has power, he hits really hard.
“Then next fight will be next challenge. There are guys that are coming up, I know there are guys in the top 15, I just don’t really remember the name, but I think the No. 15 and No. 14 guys they are really good. They have long win streaks also. There are so many. I’m excited, I just want to be busy now.”