Dvalishvili’s delay in title fight shows he is ‘scared’

Umar Nurmagomedov is convinced that Merab Dvalishvili is evading him.

Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) secured the No. 1 contender spot when he defeated Cory Sandhagen in his first UFC headliner in August. A month later, Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) dethroned Sean O’Malley to become bantamweight champion at UFC 306.

Dvalishvili dismissed Nurmagomedov as a legitimate contender even before he won the title. Nurmagomedov thinks Dvalishvili’s refusal to recognize him is not a good image and claims Dvalishvili is deliberately trying to push for March – where Nurmagomedov will not compete because of Ramadan.

“Merab is trying to avoid my name and tell me I don’t deserve (a title shot),” Nurmagomedov told Kevin Iole. “Even if the UFC asked him to fight me or someone else, I think he will choose someone else 100 times over. He plays games. They know that I will not fight in Ramadan and they tell us that we will fight in March. March is all about Ramadan.

“It looks very bad. It looks like he’s trying to avoid me, like he’s scared. I don’t understand how the champion tries to avoid this, but if he doesn’t fight me, I don’t want to wait. Summer: June, July, May – I want to fight now. I want to fight and be active after two months, before Ramadan, and we will see what will happen.”

Nurmagomedov’s patience is running out. He has already decided to stay active by signing up for a grappling match on October 25 at ADXC 7 and is even considering taking another fight if Dvalishvili doesn’t fight him before Ramadan .

“I want to be active and fight before Ramadan,” Nurmagomedov said. “Maybe January or December will be a good time for me, and then after Ramadan, we’ll see. Maybe Merab fights someone else and maybe he loses, who knows.”

Nurmagomedov says he knew Dvalishvili would win the title if O’Malley couldn’t catch him.

“They’re both not very good,” Nurmagomedov said. “O’Malley is a bum in MMA. He has no grappling. He doesn’t have any wrestling and he didn’t even try to fight him. He just waits, he just runs and fights like a bum. Merab – he is good. With Merab you have to keep going and fighting. You can’t beat him if you run from him.”