Merab Dvalishvili doesn’t believe his altercation with a fan at UFC 310 was an accident.
On Saturday night, the UFC bantamweight champion ended up in an incident as he was walking backstage after cornering friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling in his fight against Movsar Evloev. Footage captured by nearby fans saw Dvalishvili being restrained by security with fellow teammate and UFC fighter Dennis Buzukja actually throwing punches with the person.
The fan was apparently escorted out of the arena with UFC CEO Dana White later calling Dvalishvili his “mini-[Sean] Strickland” due to numerous incidents happening outside the cage, which included the Georgian confronting a heckler at the Craig Jones Invitational in Las Vegas a few months ago.
Now Dvalishvili is calling foul on the whole situation by claiming that the person who accosted him as he walked backstage is actually a “teammate and friend” of his upcoming opponent Umar Nurmagomedov.
“More lies, disrespect, and deliberate provocations from Umar’s team,” Dvalishvili wrote on Twitter. “Here’s the real story,”
The “real story” involves a minute-long video alleging that the person who got into the altercation with Dvalishvili is a longtime friend and supporter of Nurmagomedov and his team. The video voiceover alleges that the person has numerous photos posed alongside Nurmagomedov and teammates such as UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
The video also alleges that the whole altercation was built around some sort of perceived disrespect by Dvalishvili towards UFC 310 co-main event fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov, who was facing Ian Machado Garry later that same night.
None of the claims have been verified by Nurmagomedov or his team but Dvalishvili is clearly convinced he got set up and drawn into a calculated altercation by his next opponent. When White addressed the situation at the UFC 310 post-fight press conference, he acknowledged this latest issue isn’t an isolated incident for Dvalishvili.
Add to that, White says fighters often build up these conspiracy theories that somebody is against them and perhaps that’s just the fuel Dvalishvili needs for the fire he’s building towards the eventual showdown against Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 on Jan. 18.
“Fighters are a paranoid bunch,” White said. “There’s always some conspiracy against them. Whether it’s us or other people. We make fights people want to see. They win or lose the fights on their own but they are conspiracy theorists.
“They always think that somebody is against them and maybe that’s what they need to do to have that mental thing to go out and do what they do.”
