Abu Dhabi police have arrested 10 people after a hotel brawl involving Usman Nurmagomedov and former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili, and the case has been handed to local prosecutors. According to The National, as relayed by Athlon and Yahoo Sports, eight of the 10 were detained for fighting. The other two were arrested for filming it.
The confrontation reportedly began with Nurmagomedov slapping Dvalishvili inside the hotel lobby ahead of RAF Abu Dhabi. Dvalishvili needed medical treatment afterward for a cut to his face.
Police haven’t publicly identified anyone in custody. That means there’s no confirmation either Nurmagomedov or Dvalishvili is among the 10, so anyone on social media naming names right now is working without a source.
A feud with a paper trail
This didn’t come out of nowhere. Dvalishvili has a running rivalry with the Nurmagomedov camp, and the receipt is UFC 311 in January 2025, when he beat Usman’s brother, Umar Nurmagomedov, by unanimous decision to keep the bantamweight belt.
The fight world picked sides fast. Islam Makhachev, the UFC lightweight champion, defended the Nurmagomedov family after the incident. Ilia Topuria went the other direction and called the people involved “cowards.”
What’s next
Dvalishvili is scheduled to face Marlon Moraes at RAF Abu Dhabi. The facial injury has raised fair questions about whether he makes the walk, but the promotion hasn’t announced any change, and until it does, the bout is still on as booked.
The bigger financial subplot belongs to Usman. He’s one of the most sought-after free agents in MMA, and he reportedly turned down a $2 million offer from the PFL, which fed plenty of chatter about a move to the UFC. There’s been no official word that a lobby slap affects those talks, and neither the UFC nor Abu Dhabi authorities have said a deal is in jeopardy. With prosecutors now holding the file, the legal side is genuinely unsettled, and nobody involved has said when that gets resolved.
My take, from the betting window: if you’re holding a ticket on Dvalishvili vs. Moraes, sit on your hands. A fresh cut on the face before a fight is the kind of variable that shows up in the first exchange, and a prosecutor’s file is the kind that shows up in a fighter’s head, and I don’t price either one well (ask my bankroll about the last time I backed a guy because he looked fine at weigh-ins). As for Usman, a guy who reportedly waved off $2 million just made the most expensive open-hand strike of his year in a hotel lobby, and somewhere two men with phones are learning that recording the brawl carries the same trip to the station as joining it.
