"He doesn't die" - Merab Dvalishvili's ex-training partner warns Umar Nurmagomedov of dire consequences if fight isn't finished within Round 2
According to one of Merab Dvalishvili's former training partners, the bantamweight champ could have a noticeable advantage over Umar Nurmagomedov by the mid-way point of their upcoming fight at UFC 311.
Appearing on a recent episode of Bowks Talking Bouts, Jose 'Shorty' Torres discussed several subjects ahead of his 130-pound catchweight fight against Makoto Shinryu for Rizin's New Year's Eve festivities to end in 2024.
While Torres admitted to not having that same training experience with Nurmagomedov, 'Shorty' does have training experiences with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev.
When discussing his training history with the current UFC bantamweight champion in the context of his thoughts on Dvalishvili embarking on his attempted first title defense against Umar Nurmagomedov on Jan. 18, Torres said:
"He doesn't die and that's the fact with fighting Merab, you have to finish him. If you don't finish him, he's going to just demolish you. Because he's that little cub bear that just gets bigger and bigger and bigger."
"Until it becomes a full grown bear and you're like oh dude, this sucks. That's what's going to happen with Umar, if Umar can't finish him in the first or second round."
Check out Torres' thoughts on the UFC 311 bantamweight title fight below (13:06):
Merab Dvalishvili's teammate not keen on his title defense timeline
Merab Dvalishvili captured the gold at UFC 306 but a prominent teammate of the champion seems to think he's being rushed to defend his title. The individual in question is someone who has also had anecdotal experiences where he felt like he was being rushed to defend his UFC bantamweight belt.
Aljamain Sterling discussed this in a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show when he expressed some issues with Dvalishvili being booked on a six-and-a-half weeks' notice or so. Sterling drew comparisons to his experiences of feeling rushed as a title defending champion in a contest that saw him eventually lose his bantamweight belt to Sean O'Malley.
Sterling felt that the 33-year-old champion should have been allowed to explore the desires that Dvalishvili had to take some time off. 'Funk Master' added that a title challenger being on a tight timeline makes way more sense than the champion having to deal with that.
Sterling ended his sentiment by hoping that the Georgian native puts on a great performance against Umar Nurmagomedov and they could move on to the next in-cage task thereafter.