Umar Nurmagomedov has fired back at
Merab Dvalishvili after the “The Machine” accused him of getting privileges in the
UFC because of his connection to
Khabib Nurmagomedov .
Nurmagomedov climbed eight spots to No.2 in the UFC’s bantamweight rankings with an impressive unanimous decision win over top contender
Cory Sandhagen at
UFC on ABC 7 last weekend. Nurmagomedov is expected to be fight for the title next against the winner of
Sean O'Malley -Dvalishvili, which headlines
UFC 306 on Sept. 14.
However, Dvalishvili isn’t excited about a potential clash against Umar Nurmagomedov, as he believes the Dagestani has been fast tracked on his way to title contention. Dvalishvili claims Nurmagomedov hasn’t paid his dues as much as other elite contenders and has been pushed because of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is his cousin.
“He has a push because we all know why,” Dvalishvili recently told
heavywgt MMA . “Because he’s Khabib’s cousin. He’s a good fighter. I have all the respect to him. If
Aljamain Sterling earned to get here, if I earned to get here, if Cory Sandhagen earned to get here…Sean O’Malley get push and Umar get push. It’s a little bit heartbroken when you see sometimes when you working hard. I wasn’t sure if I was getting a title fight until two weeks ago… I am not excited for this fight because I know he get here easy. He is a good fighter, but he get pushed. It’s like cheating a little bit to get here. I have 12 fights in the UFC. I beat like seven or eight ranked fighters.”
Umar Nurmagomedov in response noted that others have received title shots with as long a winning streak as his or even less. The undefeated Dagestani contender further reminded Dvalishvili of his reluctance to fight teammate Sterling during his title reign.
“Yan fought for [the] title after [six wins]. [O’Malley] after [four wins]. Merab could [have fought] for [the] title with Aljo last year,” he wrote on X. “You have to stop crying. [You’re] just scared that I will take everything from you.”
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