Merab Dvalishvili thinks Umar Nurmagomedov would be in for a rude awakening if they meet again down the road.
Dvalishvili is currently focused on his next UFC Bantamweight Championship defense. He’ll be putting his 135-pound gold at stake against Cory Sandhagen in the UFC 320 co-main event. The planned date for that showdown is Oct. 4 in Las Vegas.
Nurmagomedov’s next fight is also set. He’ll be facing Mario Bautista on the UFC 321 card set for Oct. 25. If Nurmagomedov can get past Bautista, he’ll be one step closer to another title opportunity.
During an appearance on the “Full Send Podcast,” Dvalishvili warned Nurmagomedov about a potential rematch in the future (via MMAJunkie).
“If he deserves the title fight again, if we fought again, I will destroy him,” Dvalishvili said. “This time, I will beat the sh*t out of him. I won, so now I can talk about this. I was injured, my back was killing me, and then I had infection in my leg, and that was a very stressful training camp.”
Dvalishvili admitted that he felt Nurmagomedov had things handed to him because he is related to UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“There are so many good fighters in the UFC like Bautista, but he has to work to get what he deserves (more) than everybody else. There are other guys who work very hard, but because they don’t have a cousin like Khabib, they don’t give him a title fight. He was disrespecting me, especially on Twitter and the internet. Yeah, I was very mad at him. That was personal for sure.”
It’ll be interesting to see if “The Machine” and Nurmagomedov cross paths again inside the Octagon. Sandhagen figures to be a worthy contender for Dvalishvili, and Bautista is surging in the 135-pound weight class. Could a win for both Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov lead to part two?