Umar Nurmagomedov has been eyeing the UFC bantamweight title for quite some time now. The undefeated Dagestani fighter has dominated the MMA cage with his strong grappling and striking skills. But now, he is all set to fight for the championship belt. Even his cousin, Khabib Nurmagomedov, has claimed that he is ready for a title shot. 

But the world of mixed martial arts didn’t expect it to come so soon. The MMA promotion seems to believe that Nurmagomedov is indeed the best fighter to compete with the winner of UFC 306 main event, and will be present beside the Octagon during the main event. This was even confirmed by the manager of the Dagestani team, as Ali Abdelaziz took to X and wrote, “Umar Nurmagomedov will be cage side at the Sphere, he will fight the winner of the main event.” But Merab Dvalishvili isn’t quite content with the UFC matchmakers’ decision.

He was pretty furious at the Nurmagomedov getting a title shot instead of fighters like Dieveson Figueiredo. Back in August, Dvalishvili was interviewed by the ‘Red Corner MMA’, where he was asked about his opinion on Nurmagomedov getting a chance to fight for the title.

An irritated Dvalishvili voiced, “Why it will be Umar Nurmagomedov? Why it’s not Figueiredo? Why? Because of Umar say ‘UFC told me like this’? So, man, I don’t trust this guy!” When ‘The Machine’ was questioned if he thought that Nurmagomedov shouldn’t get a title shot, he simply waved off the question and walked away. But he didn’t forget to say, “Who the f**k is Umar? He just fought one fight!” He reflected on Nurmagomedov’s fight against Cory Sandhagen, which is, in fact, the only bout Nurmagomedov has fought with a top 15 guy. 

While Team Khabib was preparing for another title shot, ‘The Machine’s thoughts were reciprocated by the former UFC contender, Chael Sonnen.

Chael Sonnen sides with Merab Dvalishvili in his take on Umar Nurmagomedov getting a title shot

Dvalishvili is all set to fight Sean O’Malley at Riyadh Season Noche UFC for the bantamweight championship belt. Needless to say, he is quite confident in his strengths against the champion. However, he has repeatedly claimed that he doesn’t want Nurmagomedov to get a title shot. Instead, he named a few other more worthy fighters. The one argument he put forth was the Dagestani’s record missing fights against ranked fighters.

Sonnen agreed to what Dvalishvili had to say. In one of the episodes of his YouTube talk show, ‘The American Gangster’ said, “Though Nurmagomedov has done everything right, winning every fight and meeting all expectations expect for missing weight a few times, Merab is letting us know his stance.”

But Nurmagomedov isn’t someone who likes to keep quiet. With so much mud coming his way, he simply asked ‘The Machine’ to focus on his fight against O’Malley. But whatever the bantamweight #1 might think, the UFC seems to have made its decision pretty clear. Umar Nurmagomedov is indeed the next fight in line to compete for the bantamweight title. 

What are your thoughts on Umar Nurmagomedov getting a title shot? Do you agree with the arguments made by Dvalishvili and Sonnen? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.