For all of the chaos that Merab Dvalishvili typically brings to the Octagon in the form of his endless cardio, spamming wrestling attack and constant forward pressure, his critics are starting to wonder whether the Georgian star is causing too much of it for his own good outside of the cage, too.
Dvalishvili (18-4), who turned 34 last week, will defend his bantamweight title for the first time in Saturday’s UFC 311 pay-per-view co-main event against Umar Nurmagomedov (18-0), in the promotion’s first trip to the brand-new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
But if you’ve taken notice of Dvalishvili’s words over the past few weeks, the native of Georgia has focused his attention almost exclusively upon the negativity of where he feels he has been wronged, rather than speak all that much about the actual challenge in front of him.
Dvalishvili has been vocal about his belief that Nurmagomedov, the 29-year-old cousin of former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, was able to cut the line and receive a title shot simply due to his last name. “The Machine” has also revealed that he felt pressured by UFC into taking the fight just four months after winning the title from Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 in September, despite multiple lingering injuries, simply to satisfy Nurmagomedov’s need to squeeze in the fight before he begins observing Ramadan in late February.
In addition, Dvalishvili won’t stop referencing the outright disrespect he feels his honor has received from Nurmagomedov, which went a long way in fueling the visceral anger between the two shown before, during and after their December press conference in Las Vegas, where Dvalishvili needed to be restrained multiple times.
Dvalishvili, who enters as a +230 betting underdog, is either using the chaos to amp himself up in order to be ready for Nurmagomedov or he has become too intoxicated with drama (and his need to fight for honor) that he’s now the last one to know just how much he has become a distraction to himself.
The answer, of course, will come this weekend over 25 minutes inside the Octagon. But when asked last week why he’s so hellbent on making Nurmagomedov pay for said slights, the champion appeared surprised.
“I’m a f—ing fighter,” Dvalishvili told CBS Sports. “What are you asking of me?”
The problem, in this case, is that Nurmagomedov still isn’t sure what he ever said to draw Dvalishvili’s ire in the first place and, during Wednesday’s UFC 311 media day, attempted to make sense of the drama.
“He came into my interview [before the December press conference] and asked me, ‘Why you disrespect me?’ I wanted to tell him, ‘What are you talking about? Explain to me exactly what I said?'” Nurmagomedov said. “I’m not his son. He can’t ask for me like we are father and son, ‘Why do you do this?’ You are not my father. If you guys can find anything what I said with the name Merab [like], ‘Merab is a coward. Merab is a bullshit guy,’ or anything else, show me.
“When I hear him say why Petr Yan deserves [title shot] more than me, of course I will tell him, ‘Merab, don’t be scared. Nobody understood why you are trying to avoid me. Dana said I am next.’ Joe Rogan even asked him, after his [UFC 306 title fight], ‘What about Umar next as the next challenger?’ Everywhere, he tried to avoid, right? But it’s not like it’s [only] what I said. The whole world was saying that, all of the fans said that Merab was trying to avoid this fight and that he looked bad. What else would I have to do?”
Aggressively pointing out the disrespect of others isn’t necessarily new territory for the wildcard Dvalishvili, who can be jovial and comedic in one breath only to be looking for a fight seconds later. This week, however, Dvalishvili’s spider senses for checking his critics appears to be on overload during such an important time in his career.
In fact, Dvalishvili was caught by UFC cameras on Wednesday interrogating bantamweight prospect Payton Talbott, who fights on Saturday’s undercard, about some form of disrespect he claimed Talbott shared online.
Dvalishvili also was part of a much-publicized incident early in the first round of his title win over O’Malley in September when his opponent’s head trainer, Tim Welch, yelled some fairly tame sarcastic coaching instructions at Dvalishvili that caused him to turn away from O’Malley and begin pointing and jawing at Welch. The distraction forced referee Herb Dean to call timeout and warn Dvalishvili not to continue his behavior.
“[Welch] was trying to disrespect me so many times,” Dvalishvili said. “At first, he did an interview with The Schmo and he mentioned that I have a seven-inch nose and that I’m like 5-foot-3 or something. It’s not a coach’s job to talk shit and disrespect me like that. Even at the weigh-ins, O’Malley was talking trash. He was trying hard but we will see how stupid they look. They saw after the fight that I was holding belt.
“I just want to tell everybody who tries to take short cuts or cheat, just don’t do this. This is bullshit. Why do you have to do that? Just train better than me and work harder than me. Just do it that way like I did. Don’t do it this bullshit ways or you will look stupid like Tim does now.”
While Dvalishvili was able to persevere through the chaos against O’Malley, his opponent on Saturday is simply a different caliber of fighter.
Raised in Dagestan, Russia, in a camp where he sharpened iron against a handful of future great champions, Nurmagomedov is stoic enough not to fall for any of this drama. Unlike O’Malley, he also has the prerequisite expert ground skills to potentially neutralize Dvalishvili’s vaunted wrestling attack.
So, why, exactly, is Dvalishvili so hyper-focused on his need to physically address any disrespect that may or may not have come his way? It’s a topic that was broached to the champion by Sportsnet’s Aaron Bronsteter on Wednesday.
“Because I think I earned everything and nobody gave it to me or nothing,” Dvalishvili said. “I am a champion and I think I am a respectful champion because I deserve to be champion. I didn’t get here because I was lucky or somebody handed to me something. When somebody like Umar Nurmagomedov calls me a fake champion, I was so mad, yes. It’s because I don’t deserve it from him. It’s a fight and everything can happen, but don’t disrespect me that way because one day you will be champion and somebody up-and-coming will disrespect you that way. And that’s not right.
“That’s how it is going to be. If you don’t like it, don’t disrespect me.”
Dvalishvili might be willing to fight Nurmagomedov before the two enter the Octagon over the topic of disrespect, but he isn’t willing to talk negatively about his foe. Even though the champion believes Nurmagomedov is not quite at the same elite level as his cousin Khabib or training partner, pound-for-pound king Islam Makhachev, Dvalishvili is willing to give his opponent his flowers in terms of his ability.
One thing Dvalishvili was quick to counter with, however, when asked how he might deal with Nurmagomedov’s well-rounded game, is that he believes his opponent has more to worry about when it comes to fighting him.
“You are going to find out. I am training to beat him and I don’t know how he is going to deal with me,” Dvalishvili said. “I’m not accepting that this will be an easy fight. I know it’s going to be a great fight. He is good fighter; he is strong and has great technique but I will be there and I will try to break him.
“I’m just a professional. This is what I do for a living. I’m a fighter and what I have to do is stay healthy, don’t get sick or injured, make weight, eat good, sleep good and [on Saturday] the cage will be locked in. I will show you who is the better fighter and then you decide.”
Dvalishvili has already established through his behavior as an elite UFC champion that he’s a bit endearingly off kilter, if not crazy, especially when the perceived smell of disrespect is permeating in the air. The question now becomes whether he’s also crazy like a fox and is simply using all of noise to raise his focus to an entirely new level in his first title defense.
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