{"id":380484,"date":"2025-12-30T13:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380484\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T13:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:25:08","slug":"islam-makhachev-picks-merab-dvalishvili-for-umar-nurmagomedovs-next-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/380484\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev picks Merab Dvalishvili for Umar Nurmagomedov\u2019s next fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of bantamweights probably heaved a sigh of relief when Merab Dvalishvili lost the 135 pound belt to Petr Yan at UFC 323. \u201cThe Machine\u201d had thoroughly cleaned out the top of the division, leaving few contenders left. Now that he\u2019s fallen, top guys Merab beat like Sean O\u2019Malley and Umar Nurmagomedov are right back in the mix.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Umar\u2019s training partner Islam Makhachev believes Nurmagomedov shouldn\u2019t try to jump past Dvalishvili into a title shot with Petr Yan. Instead, Umar should be excited at the opportunity to avenge that loss<\/a> before becoming champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019d be more interested in a fight against Merab,\u201d Makhachev told Ushatayka<\/a> (via Red Corner MMA). \u201cBecause Umar lost the first fight, there were many reasons why, but what can we say about that now? I think Umar can do much better. I know he can outplay Merab. Umar is still young, he has time to get to the belt. It would be good to close out the loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why wait, though? Why not go for the belt and then defend it against Merab? That\u2019s leaving a few too many things to chance, and Makhachev knows what it\u2019s like having an unavenged loss on his record.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have one loss and I\u2019m always thinking, \u2018If only I had a chance to close it out, have a rematch,\u2019\u201d Islam said. \u201cAnd I know that\u2019s no longer possible. But Umar has a good chance now, and Merab is in a good position. He\u2019s No. 1, he\u2019s still going, so I think this fight for Umar [is best]. Maybe he doesn\u2019t think so, but I think for him it would be best to fight Merab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makhachev lost to Adriano Martins<\/a> via first round knockout back in 2015, but never got his rematch because Martins fell off a career cliff after that fight with only one win in the proceeding decade. Martins losing twice in a row to end his UFC days, then went 1-4-1 on the international circuit. But he can take pride in the fact that he beat the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, Islam Makhachev. And Makhachev never got a chance to win that one back.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Petr Yan is a big topic of discussion at the moment. If Sean O\u2019Malley earns a powerful win at UFC 324,<\/a> the marketable American fighter could jump right into a title match against Yan \u2014 which would be a rematch of their hotly contested contender\u2019s bout in 2022 that \u201cSuga\u201d won.<\/a> But Umar Nurmagomedov is right in the conversation as well, and his last name is pretty marketable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of bantamweights probably heaved a sigh of relief when Merab Dvalishvili lost the 135 pound belt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85,1396,179146],"class_list":["post-380484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}