Khabib Nurmagomedov Prefers Umar to Face Merab Dvalishvili Rather Than Sean O’Malley
Khabib Nurmagomedov would rather see Umar Nurmagomedov fight Merab Dvalishvili than Sean O’Malley.
Umar and Khabib Nurmagomedov
Last weekend, Umar Nurmagomedov, cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov, picked up the biggest win of his career thus far. He battled it out with Cory Sandhagen, eventually managing to grind out a pretty comfortable decision victory.
In the immediate aftermath of that triumph, Nurmagomedov made it crystal clear that he wants to fight for the UFC bantamweight championship. As we know, Sean O’Malley will be defending that title against Merab Dvalishvili at Noche UFC next month.
In a backstage interview following UFC Abu Dhabi, Khabib laid out his ideal scenario as the team begins to look ahead to the race for gold.
Khabib Nurmagomedov wants Umar vs Dvalishvili
“I want Merab to be honest, because he’s from Georgia. [Dagestan and Georgia are] neighbors. I want Merab to win because it’s going to be a very interesting fight. White papakha vs. black papakha. But if O’Malley wins, it’s going to be white papakha vs. pink papakha.
“He’s going to be good competition for O’Malley. A very good fight, high-level fight for all of the fans all over the world. It’s not easy to beat Umar. And it’s not easy to beat Merab or Sean O’Malley. This is high level. Anything can happen, but in my opinion, Umar is ready.” Quotes via MMA News
It won’t come as much of a surprise to those who have been watching that Umar is in this position. Khabib has been helping to get him to this point in his career and while nothing is a formality, there was a lot of intrigue heading into the Sandhagen fight.
Either way, though, Nurmagomedov is correct in his assessment. O’Malley and Dvalishvili have both worked unbelievably hard to get to the top of the mountain, and they won’t give up the belt without a fight.
