Coach: Umar Nurmagomedov Won’t Be Able to 'Keep Pace' with Merab Dvalishvili

👀Merab Dvalishvili’s coach predicts Umar won’t keep up with Merab’s relentless pace:

“3rd, 4th, and 5th rounds, I think it’s gonna be Merab’s fight. I expect a hard couple of rounds, but I also expect Merab to do what he does best and take over.”

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Merab Dvalishvili’s head coach is confident that the champ will retain his title against Umar Nurmagomedov.

Dvalishvili will put his bantamweight title on the line against Nurmagomedov in the co-main event at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. Many expect Nurmagomedov’s elite wrestling to be Dvalishvili’s toughest test to date. While Syndicate MMA head coach John Wood doesn’t expect an easy night at the office for Dvalishvili, he believes “The Machine” will get his hand raised.

According to Wood, Dvalishvili’s cardio is going to be the game changer like it has been against most of his previous opponents. While Wood envisions a tough couple of rounds in the beginning, he believes “The Machine” will take over as the fight goes to deeper waters.

“He just has a different pace, a different cardio that is such a big weapon,” Wood recently told Home of Fight. “And I expect Umar to be able to deal with some of those things. But come, third, fourth, fifth round, I think it’s gonna be a Merab fight… I expect a hard couple of rounds. But I expect Merab to do what he does and take over and put that grind and that pace on. And we fully expect, we’re gonna get taken down, we’re gonna get punched, we’re gonna get kicked. But we’re gonna get back up, we’re gonna be OK… I see it being like a basic Merab Dvalishvili fight where I don’t think [Umar] will be able to keep pace, and I think that we’re walking out of that cage with that belt wrapped around his waist.”

Dvalishvili won the title with a dominant unanimous decision win over Sean O’Malley at UFC 306 in September 2024. The Georgian was initially loathe to fight Nurmagomedov, accusing the undefeated Dagestani of being gifted a title shot because of his cousin, Khabib Nurmagomedov.