Umar Nurmagomedov shuts down Aljamain Sterling’s "excuse" in defense of Merab Dvalishvili
Umar Nurmagomedov recently dismissed Aljamain Sterling's reasoning behind Merab Dvalishvili's reluctance to fight him. Nurmagomedov replied to Sterling's tweet to showcase his contradiction towards his defensive statement for his friend, Dvalishvili.
Nurmagomedov has been hoping for a shot at the UFC bantamweight gold since Dvalishvili claimed it at UFC 306 against Sean O'Malley. Even Joe Rogan mentioned him as Dvalishvili's first title defense rival while interviewing 'The Machine' during the octagon interview.
But Dvalishvili avoided providing his consent to having Nurmagomedov as his first title defense rival. Currently, he has agreed to the fight, but he wants it to happen in March 2025, a time when Nurmagomedov would be unavailable due to Ramadan.
The entire incident prompted MMA fans to accuse Dvalishvili of ducking Nurmagomedov, something that Sterling couldn't accept. The former UFC bantamweight champ put out a tweet to defend his friend. It implied that Dvalishvili was right to choose his preferred timeline (March 2025) for the fight.
However, Nurmagomedov pointed out his reason of discontent with a reply to Sterling's tweet. The Dagestani was annoyed due to Dvalishvili preferring to have their fight in March, while being ready to fight O'Malley once more in November.
Sterling justified that Dvalishvili would require more time to prepare for Nurmagomedov since his style was unknown to the Georgian. As per him, the Dvalishvili vs. Nurmagomedov would surely happen.
"It’s a completely different style of fight. If he had to choose his ideal return he would rather [take] more time to recover and prepare properly like most champs do. You guys will share the octagon one day."
Nurmagomedov failed to accept this justification from Sterling once again. He labeled it as a "cheap" warrant to normalize Dvalishvili's reluctance towards fighting him.
"cheap excuse"
Umar Nurmagomedov wants to stay active with hope to fight Merab Dvalishvili
Nobody knows which route the negotiation of the Merab Dvalishvili vs. Umar Nurmagomedov fight will take. But 'Young Eagle' doesn't want to wait for what fate brings to him. Instead, he wants to stay active and have one fight before moving into his unavailable period during Ramadan.
In a recent interview with Kevin Iole, Nurmagomedov said:
"I don't want to wait...I want to fight now, I want to fight two months before Ramadan. I want to be active...one fight before Ramadan, maybe January or December...then after Ramadan, we'll see what's going to happen."
Check out Umar Nurmagomedov's comments below (03:44):