Merab Dvalishvili says his relationship with Umar Nurmagomedov has changed, and in a direction people didn’t expect. MMA Sucka reported the shift on Wednesday under a headline calling it a surprising change before UFC 333. The report frames it as an evolution in how the two bantamweights deal with each other, but the specifics of what changed weren’t in the material available to us. So I’m not going to guess at it.
One correction to how this story has been floating around: Dvalishvili is not the champion heading into Saturday. Petr Yan holds the bantamweight title, having beaten Dvalishvili in December. That result reversed their first meeting, which Dvalishvili won convincingly. The trilogy is the co-main event of UFC 333 on Saturday, Oct. 24, in Abu Dhabi, under Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight title defense against the unbeaten Movsar Evloev.
The Yan rivalry is the fight Dvalishvili actually has to win this week, and by his own account he isn’t letting it get under his skin. MMA Fighting ran a story this week saying he’s keeping his cool about it. Sean O’Malley, who lost to Dvalishvili, has publicly wondered whether Yan made a crucial mistake ahead of the bout. MMA Fighting’s Alexander K. Lee wrote that he’s leaning Yan for now, while admitting he expects to flip-flop before fight night.
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The legacy stakes are real. In MMA Fighting’s UFC 333 roundtable, Lee argued that whoever wins the series is the best bantamweight ever. Jed Meshew flatly disagreed, pointing to Dominick Cruz’s seven title wins and calling the GOAT talk a prisoner-of-the-moment habit. Mike Heck landed in between, still siding with Cruz but calling it close.
Then there’s the scale. Dvalishvili posted on Tuesday that he had already cut 7 kg (15 pounds) with 5 kg (11 pounds) still to go. “This 5 kg will be tough, as you see I’m already skinny,” he said. He also got bit by a horse this week, which he took in stride: “Ouch, he bite me little bit. I know I’m delicious.”
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My take: the Umar news is interesting, but it’s a Sunday problem. Dvalishvili’s whole game is pace. He shoots, he resets, he shoots again, and he drags opponents into the fifth round with nothing left in their arms. That style lives or dies on the gas tank. A fighter who calls himself already skinny with 11 pounds left a few days out is telling you the cut is biting. Yan beat him in December, and if the last 5 kg drain Dvalishvili’s legs, Yan’s counters will be waiting for the 10th takedown attempt the same way they were for the first. If Merab makes weight clean and still looks like himself in Round 4, then we can talk about Umar.
