Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t believe Umar Nurmagomedov has been suffering from any major injuries ahead of their title fight.
In fact, the UFC bantamweight champion has admitted that he has had to deal with ‘many’ injuries himself in the build up to UFC 311.
This follows comments from Nurmagomedov, who accidentally let slip in an interview that he trained with a ‘broken’ arm having suffered the injury late last year.
However, Dvalishvili, 34, was having none of it and had some strong words for his undefeated Russian opponent.
“No, first of all, I don’t believe that because Umar was continuing to train,” Dvalishvili told talkSPORT.com.
“He never stopped training like he said in an interview he was running and wrestling.
“He was feeling good, and I also saw that Henry Cejudo – he was holding the gloves for Henry, who was punching.
“Umar was punching back. I also just listened to an interview, he said he’s fine.
“He is no problem. He’s just mentioning these injuries and everyone deals with injuries! I have many but I am not talking about them. That was just something bulls***.”
Dvalishvili meets Nurmagomedov, 29, this Sunday in the co-main event of UFC 311 at the Intuit Dome, home of the LA Clippers in Los Angeles.
Nurmagomedov is the cousin of UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov and brother of PFL champion Usman Nurmagomedov.
UFC President Dana White revealed on Sunday that UFC 311 could move location due to the impact of the enormous wildfires currently spreading through the city.
“Well, if the fire gets bad, we are coming to Vegas,” White said, speaking on a stream with social media star Adin Ross.
At the moment, UFC 311 is still going ahead in Los Angeles as Islam Makhachev defends his lightweight title against Arman Tsarukyan in the headline act.
Dvalishvili won his bantamweight title after dominating Sean O’Malley at one of UFC’s biggest events of 2024 in Las Vegas’ Sphere.
O’Malley revealed in December that he was cutting out all forms of social media to work his way back to a title shot.
He won the belt from Aljamain Sterling, who is a training partner of Dvalishvili, in August 2023 and defended it once against Marlon Vera before losing it at UFC 306.
Dvalishvili has admitted he would be more than welcome to a rematch with O’Malley should he get through Nurmagomedov at UFC 311.
The undefeated Russian has won all six of his UFC fights since debuting with the promotion in January 2021.
As well as being cousins with one of MMA’s most iconic fighter of all time, Nurmagomedov is also trained by Khabib.
Coach Khabib has just entered one of the busiest months of his new role, with both Nurmagomedov and his brother Usman, as well as Makhachev, having world title fights at the end of the month.
Usman takes on Ireland’s Paul Hughes on January 25 in the PFL for the Bellator lightweight title on a card billed ‘Dagestan vs Ireland 2’.
Khabib is expected to corner, or at least support, all three men in their respective world championship bouts.
UFC CEO White will lose several key fighters to Ramadan at the end of February, which is probably why his promotion was in such a hurry to get Dvalishvili vs Nurmagomedov over the line this month.
Elsewhere at UFC 311, Jiri Prochazka faces Jamahal Hill in a top light heavyweight bout and Beneil Dariush takes on Renato Moicano in the lightweight division.