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Umar Nurmagomedov is still hoping to fight Merab Dvalishvili next for the bantamweight title, but claims the new 135 pound champion is ‘playing games’ in an attempt to avoid the match-up.
In a new interview with Kevin Iole, Nurmagomedov once again declared he was not impressed with either fighter’s performance at UFC 306 when Dvalishvili took the belt off Sean O’Malley in the Sphere.
“They both not very good, like how I expect,” Umar said. O’Malley is a bum. In MMA, like he doesn’t have any grappling, he doesn’t have any wrestling and he didn’t even try to fight [Merab]. He just waiting, he just running, and he fight like bum.”
As for Merab, he said he gave the Georgian challenger advice on how to beat O’Malley, which is part of why he’s not happy about how Dvalishvili is now pushing for a fight with Deiveson Figueiredo instead.
“Now he tried to avoid even mentioning my name, try to tell I don’t deserve,” Nurmagomedov said. “If the UFC ask him to fight me or someone else, I think he will choose someone else like 100 times.”
The latest shady tactic? Umar says Merab is trying to skew his schedule so his next fight happens during Ramadan, a month of fasting in the Muslim community.
“He’s playing games,” he said. “They know I won’t fight during Ramadan, and they say they’re going to fight in March. You know March, all March is Ramadan. That’s why it’s looking very bad, like he’s trying to avoid it like he’s scared.”
“I didn’t understand it, why the champ would try to avoid. But if they want to fight with me, I don’t want to wait. Summer, June, July? I want to fight now. I want to fight two months before Ramadan, I want to be active and we’ll see what happens.”
