{"id":968966,"date":"2026-11-13T09:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T09:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/968966\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T09:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T09:12:11","slug":"10-arrested-as-pro-fighters-brawl-in-abu-dhabi-mma-media-point-to-family-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/968966\/","title":{"rendered":"10 arrested as pro fighters brawl in Abu Dhabi; MMA media point to family feud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Fighters-collage.png\" alt=\"Pro fighters Merab Dvalishvili in a video (after being assaulted in Abu Dhabi); and Usman Nurmagomedov (file photo). Screenshot and photo courtesy: Instagram; Collage: Pixlr\" class=\"wp-image-84021\"  \/>Pro fighters Merab Dvalishvili in a video (after being assaulted in Abu Dhabi); and Usman Nurmagomedov (file photo). Screenshot and photo courtesy: Instagram; Collage: Pixlr<\/p>\n<p>Two well-known professional fighters \u2014 Merab Dvalishvili of the former Soviet nation of Georgia; and Usman Nurmagomedov of Russia \u2014 were in a brawl, started by the latter, in an Abu Dhabi hotel. The incident led to at least 10 arrests in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n<p>MMA news outlets reported this as a family feud, triggered by Merab\u2019s allegedly insulting comments, made earlier this year, about Usman\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n<p>The video of the fight on Wednesday between the pro fighters has gone viral. In a reaction video on Instagram, Merab Dvalishvili is seen with a bloodied face, and he asks, \u201cWhat kind of fighters you guys are?\u201d referring to Usman Nurmagomedov.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">A very agitated Dvalishvili goes on to say that people who sneak up on others, as Nurmagomedov did, are not real men.<\/p>\n<p>The caption with this Instagram video said: \u201cWas doing an interview for RAF in hotel lobby and Usman and his buddies came up from behind and started punching me and my young friend. Security was holding me \u2013 They kept kicking us when we were down like losers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RAF is short for Real American Freestyle. Dvalishvili, a Georgian-American, is a bantamweight fighter.<\/p>\n<p>Usman Nurmagomedov, a mixed martial champion, is a lightweight fighter who claimed the championship title in his category in the inaugural Professional Fighters League (PFL).<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">The viral video shows the Georgian-American fighter standing in what seems to be the hotel lobby area, facing a camera, with the Russian walking in behind him.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8 Video shows a brawl in an Abu Dhabi hotel lobby between former UFC champ Merab Dvalishvili and a group that includes Usman Nurmagomedov, ahead of Dvalishvili&#8217;s RAF match Saturday. <\/p>\n<p>Dvalishvili says about 20 people jumped him and a friend during an interview. <\/p>\n<p>The\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/u77HApPkcX\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/u77HApPkcX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 VIRTUE.NEWS (@virtuemediacorp) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/virtuemediacorp\/status\/2120633401862439384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">November 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The video shows the Georgian becoming aware of the Russian behind him, turning around, and then almost immediately being assaulted, not once but twice. The two of them then go full tilt at each other, with people trying to pull them apart, saying, \u201cGuy, guys, c\u2019mon\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dubai-based <a href=\"https:\/\/gulfnews.com\/sport\/merab-dvalishvili-usman-nurmagomedov-brawl-in-abu-dhabi-are-police-involved-1.500744595\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Gulf News<\/a> reported: \u201cThe RAF event will take place at Etihad Arena on Saturday, November 14. It remains to be seen whether Wednesday\u2019s altercation or the police questioning will have any impact on the fighters\u2019 participation in the event. But for the time being, the event will continue as planned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Explaining \u201cthe real beef\u201d between the two fighters, the fight news website <a href=\"https:\/\/mmasucka.com\/news\/usman-nurmagomedov-attack-merab-dvalishvili-real-beef\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">MMA Sucka<\/a> said: \u201cMerab and Usman have never fought in an official bout, as Merab competes at bantamweight in the UFC and Usman competes at lightweight in the PFL. Therefore, the root of the conflict was obviously something else. The reason why Usman attacked Merab was Merab\u2019s ongoing feud with Usman\u2019s older brother, Umar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Merab and Usman, though in different leagues and weight categories, reportedly had a match at UFC113 \u2014 that \u201cFight of the Night\u201d performance, which Merab won, was the first professional loss for Usman, said MMA Sucka.<\/p>\n<p>The website reported that in July this year, Merab said some things about Usman\u2019s brother Umar at a RAF event \u201cwhich didn\u2019t sit right with one of Umar\u2019s friends and training partners, Russian wrestler Ahmed Gadzhimagomedov\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly, Ahmed \u201cconfronted\u201d Merab and the latter slapped the Russian during the argument. The \u201cunexpected hotel attack in Abu Dhabi\u201d is, therefore, being viewed as \u201cUsman\u2019s retaliatory response\u201d to Merab\u2019s alleged insults \u201cdirected at Umar and his family\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pro fighters Merab Dvalishvili in a video (after being assaulted in Abu Dhabi); and Usman Nurmagomedov (file photo).&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":968967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[2226,879,49,48,641,638,82,15797],"class_list":["post-968966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-uae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}