UFC 311 will forever remain a blotch on Umar Nurmagomedov’s career, as the fight that gifted him his career’s first defeat. Even though the battle between ‘Young Eagle’ and Merab Dvalishvili was closely contested, it was ‘The Machine’ who won via a unanimous decision and retained his position as the bantamweight champion. However, the Dagestani wasn’t happy with the outcome. 

Taking to X, the #2 bantamweight contender assured the fighting community that he would jump back into action pretty soon. But he wasn’t going to accept the defeat. He wrote, “No excuses. InshaAllah I will become a champion. The rest is not important. Praise be to Allah in any situation. And I do not think that I lost this fight. Even if the whole world tries to convince me otherwise. I will deal with my injuries and get back in action InshaAllah.” 

Prior to the battle against the Georgian champion, Nurmagomedov had revealed that he had injured his hand. Despite that, he stepped into the Octagon and fought Dvalishvili. But bad luck struck back at ‘Young Eagle’ as he broke his right hand within the first round. Regardless of the pain, he continued to fight. However, the Dagestani’s performance lost its shine in the latter rounds. Hours after the fight, he shared visuals of his broken hand on social media. Needless to say, it was really swollen up. 

But when Championship Rounds shared Nurmagomedov’s words on Instagram, the fighting community took to the comments section and revealed their thoughts. The majority of the fight fans turned against the 29-year-old and kept reminding him of the defeat. 

Fight fans keep rubbing salt in Umar Nurmagomedov’s wound

The outcome of the result was not surprising. When the referee raised Merab Dvalishvili’s hand up in the air as the victor, Umar may have been the only one who looked surprised. Fans also lauded the kind of performance ‘The Machine’ displayed against Umar Nurmagomedov. One fan weighed in on this and wrote, “Stop with mma is better for u merab destroyed u.” Another fan declared that Georgian wrestling was clearly superior to Dagestani wrestling at UFC 311. The comment read, “Not only he lost, he got dominated on wrestling, Merab was having a good time and it seem like he was taunting the coaches, yesterday Georgian wrestling beat Degestan’s wrestling.”

Do you know what’s more impressive? Merab took the fight on six-weeks notice while recovering from a nasty staph infection on his leg. He also had some lower back issues, both of which he confessed to Joe Rogan during the Octagon interview. But when he heard the UFC needed him, he decided to be a company man. ‘The Machine’ also admitted he was not feeling 100% during the fight camp, but felt more like himself during the fight. So, the type of performance he displayed after going through a fight camp while on antibiotics for the infection really nullifies Umar’s injury arguments, at least for the fans.

A few of the fans lashed out at Nurmagomedov for not accepting the reality of things. One fan commented, “He has a lot of growing and maturing to do, clearly. “No excuses,” then says “I will recover from injuries”…then continues to say “I won” with zero awareness.” Meanwhile, another fan reflected on the words uttered by Renato Moicano following his defeat against Islam Makhachev. The comment read, “Learn something from Money Moicano. Just say Merab was the better man tonight and you will work back to another shot.”

However, there were a handful of fight fans who stood in support of the #2 bantamweight contender. One of the fans declared that the world should wait for the rematch. He wrote, “Umar broke his hand and he still won lol. You guys will see in the rematch.” One more fan pointed out that it was ‘Young Eagle’ who inflicted more damage. The comment read, “Umar did more damage.” The stats would disagree.

After the first two rounds, the champion and the challenger were nearly tied for significant strikes. But Merab mounted the pressure and got ahead in the race over the next three rounds. The difference was visible in the cage as well. The champion kept shooting for takedowns relentlessly and found success when it mattered. There was no clear domination. All the rounds were 10-9 rounds leaning one way or the other. But the fight was easy enough to read and guess the scorecards. Most fans on social media predicted the rounds 3-2 in Merab’s favor. One judge even gave him the second round too.

Do you think Nurmagomedov was robbed at UFC 311? Who would have won if Nurmagomedov’s hand wasn’t broken? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.