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With a powerful wrestling-based win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, Merab Dvalishvili is the brand new bantamweight champion. However will he have the ability to maintain the belt for lengthy with No. 1 contender Umar Nurmagomedov within the wings?
Following Dvalishvili’s unanimous resolution win over O’Malley, SportsBetting.ag launched odds on a combat towards Nurmagomedov, whom UFC CEO Dana White has dubbed the following title challenger at 135 kilos. Their bookies had Umar opening as a -200 favourite to beat Merab, who was a +170 canine.
That’s a bit of shocking given how robust “The Machine” has regarded within the cage, however Nurmagomedov has additionally been extraordinarily spectacular throughout his 6-0 run within the UFC, and he brings a pedigree that might nullify Dvalishvili’s key wrestling benefit.
There’s additionally Merab’s obvious reluctance to face Umar subsequent. When requested a couple of combat with Nurmagomedov by Joe Rogan after his large win, Dvalishvili stumbled over his phrases as he refused to accept the Dagestani as his subsequent opponent. He was extra composed on the UFC 306 post-fight press convention, however the gist was nonetheless the identical: he doesn’t need to combat Nurmagomedov.
“I wanna combat the highest of the highest, you already know? Like [Deiveson Figueiredo], former champion, can be fifth champion on my record, and he’s extra harmful. Knockout energy, good jujitsu, makes folks sleep. And coming from three straight wins over high, high guys. That’s why this combat excites me. It makes me motivated. It makes me work laborious.”
“Umar, he’s okay,” Merab continued. “However I’m telling you guys, from high 15, he solely win one combat. And that was Corey Sandhagen. All of us see what Aljamain Sterling did towards Corey Sandhagen. Make him sleep in a single spherical.”
The Georgian champion prompt Nurmagomedov combat Petr Yan subsequent if he needed to be worthy of a title shot. However in the long run, “The Machine” is aware of how the UFC operates.
“I respect a lot UFC, Dana White, Hunter [Campbell],” Dvalishvili stated. “Whoever they need, I’ll combat subsequent. However I wanna discuss then extra, like shut, and I wanna develop into [Dana’s] buddy.”
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