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 evening 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 resolution 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 actually cocky. That’s his problem,” Dvalishvili stated. “He thinks that he received this one simple, however he by no means confronted me. And imagine me he’ll know on the evening. He’ll understand that he’s going to struggle me and he will probably be humble. I’ve by no means stated that he’s not fighter. I say he’s fighter, however he takes shortcuts, you already know. He cheated somewhat bit as a result of he was combating nobodies and guys on their debut. After which from debut man, he fought quantity two, you already know, that’s, that’s a present and that’s a shortcut. And that’s not the way you wish to earn your title struggle.
“That’s not right. In my opinion, he was supposed to fight one more. Maybe against Song Yadong. But once the UFC asked me, I said, okay, I will fight him. But I wanted to fight in February or March. But that’s what I said. Why don’t I like him? Because he called me a fake champion. Also, he was disrespectful towards my country.”
Merab Dvalishvili guarantees no shenanigans, simply punches in UFC 311 title struggle
Dvalishvili claimed the bantamweight title in September with a lights-out efficiency in opposition to 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, just punch!” Dvalishvili stated.