Dvalishvili dismisses Nurmagomedov’s injury excuse before UFC 311

Merab Dvalishvili is not buying Umar Nurmagomedov’s claims of injury ahead of their UFC 311 title fight on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Recently, Nurmagomedov revealed in an interview that he has been carrying an arm injury since November 2024 and only opted to accept a clash with Dvalishvili because he felt better a few weeks later.

But the bantamweight belt holder says Nurmagomedov’s claims are fictional.

“He’s bullshitting,” Dvalishvili said.

“He’s a bullshit guy and I’m not buying it.

“It’s bullshit, you know, his injury.

“Like he has little injury in his arm and he was… like I had an injury, big injury but I’m not mentioning this.

“I’m not bringing up this one, you know.

“Everybody has an injury and every professional fighter has an injury and like, he’s bullshitting.”

Dvalishvili – who is a $3.50 underdog across the top UFC bookmakers ahead of his first title defence – points to recent training footage of Nurmagomedov as evidence of his claims.

“He said he was training, I saw he was punching bags very good when he arrived in Vegas—you can go and see in the video he posted,” he said.

“He was punching bag and if you have any problem with your hand, you won’t be able to punch the bag.

“Then he was punching bag very normal and I think he’s just mentioning this to make some excuse.”

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Nurmagomedov enters his maiden title fight paying $1.30 to win at BetOnline, despite having limited wins against ranked opponents – something Dvalishvili has an issue with, saying others in the division are more deserving of an opportunity.

“The Cory Sandhagen fight was good, but my problem was before he wasn’t fighting anybody, the ranked guys,” he said.

“The fight before, he fought [a] debut guy and because of the win against [the] debut guy, he fights No.2, which for me, it’s not right.

“It’s a shortcut and it’s cheating.

“Yeah, the fight was good.

“It’s not easy to beat Cory Sandhagen like this, and Umar is a good fighter, but like you have to end it.

“There is Mario Bautista, has seven-fight win streak and I think Bautista earned it even more [than Umar].”

Dvalishvili v Nurmagomedov is not the only title fight at UFC 311, with Islam Makhachev putting his lightweight belt on the line against Arman Tsarukyan as well.

The defending champion is a heavy favourite to retain his title, paying as low as $1.25 to win at Marantelli Bet.

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