UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili aims to live up to his nickname ‘The Machine’ in 2025. Dvalishvili will enter a new year with gold in his possession for the first time, but the Georgian won’t have much time to celebrate the start of a new year before returning to work inside the cage. He is scheduled to co-star in the first pay-per-view of 2025, defending his belt against undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov. To make things even more interesting, the fighter has just exposed Umar Nurmagomedov for making the fight a lot more personal.

Although the champion will enter UFC 311 as an underdog, he is confident of leaving the Intuit Dome in Inglewood with the belt still at his waist. Why? Because he would be fighting for the honor of his country, Georgia. But how did their one-on-one turn into a matter of national pride? Well, that’s because according to ‘The Machine’, Nurmagomedov has been disrespecting his country on social media. Taking to his Instagram, the bantamweight champion uploaded a clip with the caption, “Facts Speak!” which features a series of tweets by Nurmagomedov.

In the tweets, the challenger uses a Georgian proverb about cowards to taunt Merab Dvalishvili and also goes on to explain the meaning behind it for ‘dummies’, as he wrote, “A coward will always find an excuse for his retreat.” – Georgian proverb”. The explanation tweet (which wasn’t present in the post) read, “Explaining for dummies: using your name to talk about yourself is just a way to grab attention or make what you say stand out. That’s it, nothing complicated.” This rubbed Dvalishvili the wrong way, especially after he got into a brawl with a Dagestani fan, who was later found to be a part of team Nurmagomedov.

Uploading the video of the altercation as well on the Instagram expose post, Merab Dvalishvili, who was cornering Aljamain Sterling, can be seen leaving the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas when the fan in question held his arm. Furthermore, the champion claimed to have been provoked by a friend of the Dagestani. As a result, things turned into a brawl. However, the twist in the tale came when Umar Nurmagomedov and his team uploaded pictures online with the same fan. Well, it seems like it was a strategic move by the Dagestani camp after all. So, to no one’s surprise, the comments were soon flooded with support for the bantamweight champion.

Fans turn their backs on Umar Nurmagomedov

As soon as Merab Dvalishvili uploaded the post on Instagram, his and Aljamain Sterling’s fans rallied in the comment section to show their massive support of the Georgian fighter. Despite Umar Nurmagomedov’s claims in the press conference that he did not disrespect the fighter’s country, asking, “What I said about your country? About your national? What did I say? Nothing. What I said? Nothing.” The fans think otherwise. The first and biggest fan of all was Aljamain Sterling himself, who supported his friend and training partner by commenting, “We are with you!!” Many other fans now wished to see the bantamweight champion defeat the Dagestani in the Octagon, as they expressed their desire in the comments, “Make him cry, Merab = make us happy,” “Shut up that talking shadow of habib 🇦🇲🇬🇪,” and “Let’s go merab, put justice in this world.”

Another user claimed that Dvalishvili hasn’t mocked him back because he prefers that his actions speak louder than words. So, in the end, it would be his fists that would do the talking. A scenario that we saw happen in his fight against Sean O’Malley, as the trash talker was defeated in a one-sided fight “Merab is silent but impactful” One fan even claimed that the only reason Umar Nurmagomedov is in big PPV fights is because he is Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s cousin. “Umar is only where he’s at cause he’s Khabib’s boy. Otherwise if he wasn’t he’d still be in the prelims lol.”

However, not everyone thought that Dvalishvili was a victim here. Many turned their backs on the Georgian fighter, asking him to stay more focused on his upcoming fights rather than crying about some harmless tweets. Taking to the comments, they wrote, “Tbh I didn’t know what he said but that’s because nobody actually pays attention to what Umar says,” and “Are you fr crying over that little😂 no freaking way that’s what has got you this mad,” and “Bro crying over some tweets.”

But what do you think? Do you believe Dvalishvili and his country were disrespected? Let us know in the comments.