For Mexico’s independence weekend, the UFC shelled out $20 million in a historic evening. The Sphere allowed for an unprecedented audiovisual show, including a series of mini-stories between fights that told the history of Mexico. Although the person in charge of writing down his name in the history of the company was Merab Dvalishvili. The new champion already has 11 consecutive victories and seems to be a solid monarch in his weight category.

As a result, fans couldn’t help but imagine the intense fight that would take place inside the Octagon when the Georgian went head-to-head against #2 ranked Umar Nurmagomedov. However, Dvalishvili simply refused to fight the Young Eagle when asked by Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview. A decision that has led former rival Sean O’Malley to issue a warning to the new bantamweight champion.

Umar Nurmagomedov is undefeated so far and would’ve given The Machine the fight of his life. However, Dvalishvili believed that #5-ranked Deiveson Figueiredo was a more deserving candidate. This truly irked O’Malley as he decided to give a piece of advice to Dvalishvili on his Suga Sean O’Malley YouTube channel. O’Malley warned the Georgian that it is not wise to go against the decisions made by the promotion and that, as a champion, he should be willing to fight any opponent they provide.

He said, “He was saying he’s not fighting Umar. I’m like, bro, do you not learn from your Aljo? You’re like, you can’t; you’re not going to come out and say I’m not fighting Umar. You’re the champ; Umar was supposedly the next guy. It’s like, What do you—if I’m giving any advice, it’s just f**king don’t go against what the UFC wants. UFC wants you to fight Umar. F**king fight Umar. Don’t say I’m not going to fight Umar. It’s like, then you’re not going to have a good relationship with UFC.”

Not just O’Malley; many others were also baffled by the decision. Some fans even claimed that Dvalishvili was afraid of facing an undefeated star like Nurmagomedov. Javier Mendez, the coach of Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev too questioned the decision, as he believed that it was unreasonable.

Javier Mendez finds Merab Dvalishvili’s decision ‘weird’

In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Coach Mendez questioned the mindset behind Dvalishvili calling #5 ranked Deiveson Figueiredo to be more worthy than #2 ranked Umar Nurmagomedov. “I don’t know what the hell to think because how can you say the other person is more deserving when the ranking put Umar as No. 2?” He also emphasized that it was the promotion that promised him a match for the title after he won against Cory Sandhagen.

While he did claim that he was unaware if Dvalishvili was scared, he definitely isn’t acting like a champion, as true champions accept every challenge that they get. A teaching he shares with his students. “Why Merab is trying to maybe avoid him—I don’t know if he is or isn’t. I really don’t know. It’s weird. My fighters, what I tell them is, when you’re the champion, you just get ready to fight whoever they put in front of you.” Former UFC fighter and MMA GOAT Khabib Nurmagomedov truly lived by the rule and wasn’t scared of taking any challenge thrown at him. But what do you think? Is the Georgian really scared of Nurmagomedov? Let us know in the comments.