Merab Dvalisvhili put the pace of Umar Nurmagomedov as they settled an intense feud as they finally stepped into the octagon on Saturday night.
The bantamweight duo had no love lost after a rivalry that almost came to blows at their launch press conference. And they entered UFC 311 with fans completely divided as to who they felt would win the grudge match.
Dvalishvili had just won the belt from Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 back in September, and admitted heading into the fight that he would have preferred a later date. However, that didn’t happen, and he was forced to defend on the first card of the year.
In an interesting twist, the famed middleweight mauler Chris Leben was one of the judges for this five-round showdown; his first title bout since making the switch from fighting in 2022. And he was put to work by the two grappling-heavy fighters who had a couple of close early rounds.
Despite months of bitter feuding that included the champion being denied entry into the UFC Performance Institute, the pair were tentative engaging early. Eventually Merab Dvalishvili began to open up, and even survived a takedown attempt as he found some success on the feet.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Right at the end of the first, Umar Nurmagomedov landed a solid right hand that touched the champion and ever so slightly stiffened the legs. The second started a bit more aggressive, with both men making their move for a takedown.
When the champion shot and briefly looked to be landing a takedown, Nurmagomedov ended up turning over the momentum and landing one of his own. He ended up back on the feet, with Dvalishvili landing big shots but also taking rare steps back.
In the fourth, with seconds to go, the champion finally got the elusive takedown that saw him equal Georges St-Pierre’s UFC takedown record. He managed to score two more in the closing stages of the fifth after showboating and throwing huge offence.
And the Georgian managed to grab another big decision victory to defend his belt for the first time. 48-47 on two cards and 49-46 on another was the score to secure his victory.
The champion had felt that Nurmagomedov’s path to the belt was not a legitimate one, and that he had somewhat cheated his way to a shot at the title. He believed that either O’Malley or Petr Yan deserved rematches with him for the title given their more impressive resumes.
“I have never said that he’s not a good fighter,” he told Bloody Elbow before the fight. “I say he’s a good fighter, but he takes shortcuts, you know. He cheated a little bit because he was fighting nobodies and guys on their debut.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
“And then from debut guy, he fought number two, you know, that’s, that’s a gift and that’s a shortcut. And that’s not how you want to earn your title fight. 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.”
BantamweightMerab DvalishviliUFCUFC 311Umar Nurmagomedov
