Merab Dvalishvili guarantees there received’t be any humorous enterprise when he places his bantamweight belt on the road for the primary time.
The Machine’ returns to the Octagon at UFC 311 this Saturday night time when the promotion heads again to the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. There, Dvalishvili will sq. off with undefeated Dagestani sensation Umar Nurmagomedov.
Nurmagomedov earned his first title alternative with a unanimous determination victory over Cory Sandhagen, however ever since successful the 135-pound crown, Dvalishvili has insisted that Nurmagomedov hasn’t achieved almost sufficient to justify his spot on this weekend’s co-main occasion.
Talking with Bloody Elbow, Dvalishvili echoed that very same sentiment.
“Nurmagomedov is definitely cocky. That’s his drawback,” Dvalishvili mentioned. “He thinks that he received this one simple, however he by no means confronted me. And imagine me he’ll know on the night time. He’ll understand that he’s going to combat me and he can be humble. I’ve by no means mentioned that he’s not a very good fighter. I say he’s a very good fighter, however he takes shortcuts, you understand. He cheated a little bit bit as a result of he was combating nobodies and guys on their debut. After which from debut man, he fought quantity two, you understand, that’s, that’s a present and that’s a shortcut. And that’s not the way you wish to earn your title combat.
“That’s not proper. In my view, he was alleged to combat yet another. Possibly towards Track Yadong. However as soon as the UFC requested me, I mentioned, okay, I’ll combat him. However I wished to combat in February or March. However that’s what I mentioned. Why don’t I like him? As a result of he referred to as me a pretend champion. Additionally, he was disrespectful in the direction of my nation.”
Merab Dvalishvili guarantees no shenanigans, simply punches in UFC 311 title combat
Dvalishvili claimed the bantamweight title in September with a lights-out efficiency towards ex-champion ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 in Las Vegas.
Whereas the Georgian’s efficiency was pretty dominant, there have been a handful of head-scratching moments, all of them perpetrated by ‘The Machine.’ Maybe the strangest one got here within the waning seconds of the second spherical when Dvalishvili planted a couple of kisses on the again of O’Malley whereas fishing for a guillotine choke.
This time round, Dvalishvili guarantees there received’t be any mid-fight smooches … Simply punches.
“No kiss, simply punch!” Dvalishvili mentioned.
