Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t consider his altercation with a fan at UFC 310 was an accident.
On Saturday evening, the UFC bantamweight champion ended up in an incident as he was strolling backstage after cornering pal and teammate Aljamain Sterling in his combat in opposition to Movsar Evloev. Footage captured by close by followers noticed Dvalishvili being restrained by safety with fellow teammate and UFC fighter Dennis Buzukja truly throwing punches with the individual.
The fan was apparently escorted out of the sector with UFC CEO Dana White later calling Dvalishvili his “mini-[Sean] Strickland” as a consequence of quite a few incidents occurring outdoors the cage, which included the Georgian confronting a heckler on the Craig Jones Invitational in Las Vegas a couple of months in the past.
Now Dvalishvili is asking foul on the entire scenario by claiming that the one who accosted him as he walked backstage is definitely a “teammate and pal” of his upcoming opponent Umar Nurmagomedov.
“Extra lies, disrespect, and deliberate provocations from Umar’s crew,” Dvalishvili wrote on Twitter. “Right here’s the actual story,”
The “actual story” includes a minute-long video alleging that the one who received into the altercation with Dvalishvili is a longtime pal and supporter of Nurmagomedov and his crew. The video voiceover alleges that the individual has quite a few pictures posed alongside Nurmagomedov and teammates equivalent to UFC light-weight champion Islam Makhachev.
The video additionally alleges that the entire altercation was constructed round some kind of perceived disrespect by Dvalishvili in the direction of UFC 310 co-main occasion fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov, who was dealing with Ian Machado Garry later that very same evening.
Not one of the claims have been verified by Nurmagomedov or his crew however Dvalishvili is clearly satisfied he received arrange and drawn right into a calculated altercation by his subsequent opponent. When White addressed the scenario on the UFC 310 post-fight press convention, he acknowledged this newest concern isn’t an remoted incident for Dvalishvili.
Add to that, White says fighters typically construct up these conspiracy theories that any individual is in opposition to them and maybe that’s simply the gasoline Dvalishvili wants for the hearth he’s constructing in the direction of the eventual showdown in opposition to Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 on Jan. 18.
“Fighters are a paranoid bunch,” White stated. “There’s all the time some conspiracy in opposition to them. Whether or not it’s us or different folks. We make fights folks need to see. They win or lose the fights on their very own however they’re conspiracy theorists.
“They all the time assume that any individual is in opposition to them and perhaps that’s what they should do to have that psychological factor to exit and do what they do.”
