Merab Dvalishvili does not believe that Umar Nurmagomedov has earned his title shot at UFC 311.
The undefeated contender will challenge the bantamweight champion in the co-main event on January 18 following his win over Cory Sandhagen in August.
For Dvalishvili, who had to produce one of the most impressive winning streaks in UFC history before he got a title shot, he feels that Nurmagomedov has received a much easier path to the title than the other contenders.
Though Javier Mendez doesn't believe that Dvalishvili is afraid of facing his first challenger, he doesn't agree with the champion's viewpoint.
As the coach of Nurmagomedov, he recently spoke about the narrative surrounding this fight during a recent interview with Hablemos MMA.
The AKA mastermind said that it was the UFC's call to put Nurmagomedov into this position rather than him repeatedly calling for it, meaning that he shouldn't be at fault for the decision to book this title fight next:
“This is what I say: When he fought Cory Sandhagen, UFC said that whoever wins that fight would fight for the title – whether it was going to be (Sean) O’Malley or Merab,” Mendez told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. “That’s what the UFC told Umar and Sandhagen. So why now that the fight is over, and Umar won, why is it that what UFC had said should no longer be true? UFC wants this fight. That’s why they brought Umar to the Sphere, right?
“When (Dvalishvili) won, and they interviewed him, and they said this is your next challenge, Merab said, ‘Oh, Dana needs to talk to me. He needs to get to know me as a person, and then we’ll talk about it.’ Why? The UFC wanted this fight. Umar didn’t say, ‘Hey, I need to fight for the title if I beat Sandhagen.’ No, they were the ones that said the winner would go for the title next, so that’s all we’re doing. Umar told me, ‘Look, coach. If they don’t give me the title, I just want to fight before Ramadan.’ That’s all. He just wanted to fight.”
Watch the full interview by clicking right here.