Merab Dvalishvili has reiterated to fans that he is very serious when talking about injuries he suffered ahead of UFC 311.
The bantamweight champion will defend his title for the first time on Saturday evening against undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov. He won the title from Sean O'Malley at UFC 306 in September, and it was clear he wanted more time to recover from lingering issues before this fight.
However, when Nurmagomedov pushed for an earlier date due to the impending Ramadan interfering with his training, the UFC forced the issue. And Dvalishvili admits he will enter the octagon with minor injuries.
Merab Dvalishvili opens up about 'serious' injury concerns ahead of UFC 311
While nothing is so bad that he would risk withdrawing from the fight, Merab Dvalishvili has been more open than most fighters when discussing his training camp issues. He notes that he has only had six weeks to prepare and has been honest about the setbacks he has suffered.
He started to worry fans when he said he needed treatment during a video over the Christmas period. He was denied entry to the UFC Performance Institute while his opponent trained there, and made headlines with his off-the-cuff comment.
He has since repeated this claim, causing fans to speculate as to what the problem in question could be. Speaking exclusively to Bloody Elbow in his role as ring ambassador, he refused to be briefed on what exactly the injury is, fearing fans would panic.
However, he did reassure fans by explaining: “I'm fine now, I'll post the injury or whatever after the fight, but I don't want to show people and panic before that. You know, the injury was serious, no joke.
“Having to fight on six weeks' notice, I was training hard, getting in a lot of pain and also dealing with some other injuries, but thank God I'm fine now and ready to go.”
Merab Dvalishvili wanted a later fight date for the first title defense
Overall, Dvalishvili has been clear about how he would have preferred a different fight date. The UFC has a tendency to put title fights on pay-per-view, meaning he could theoretically have competed in Sydney next month at UFC 312 or Vegas in March at UFC 313 and still have an active three-fight year .
“I was ready to fight and come back after five or six months, like any champion does,” he continued. “They even take more time. But when I said I was going to fight in February or March, Umar started complaining, blaming me and disrespecting me.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
“When I said the fight was in February or March, he said the fight was in Australia in February and March was Ramadan. I had no idea, because last year Ramadan fell in May. It's not my problem either – I'm a champion.
“So Umar wanted to fight in January and UFC asked me. Then I went to the UFC and said, OK, I'll take it a step further. I love UFC, so no problem.”
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