Nurmagomedov brands Dvalishvili a crybaby and tells rival to confront him face to face

Umar Nurmagomedov has a new nickname for Merab Dvalishvili — and it is not a flattering one. Speaking ahead of his bantamweight headliner against Song Yadong at UFC Shanghai this Saturday, Nurmagomedov labelled his rival someone who is “all the time crying” and issued a blunt challenge: if Dvalishvili has a problem, come say it in person.

The friction between the two bantamweights reignited after Dvalishvili appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show and discussed an altercation with a Nurmagomedov fan ahead of July’s RAF Georgia event. Dvalishvili also described Nurmagomedov’s manager Rizvan Magomedov as “sneaky” — a claim Nurmagomedov flatly rejected.

“He talk a lot of shit, he do something crazy,” Nurmagomedov told MMA Fighting. “Even right now he talk about my manager Rizvan, [saying] he’s snake or something. Rizvan never tell me anything. He never use my Twitter. Nobody use my Twitter. Just me.”

Nurmagomedov was equally dismissive of the RAF incident, insisting video evidence clears his associates of any wrongdoing. “Nobody hold him. Nobody touch him. Everything’s on video. Why are you lying?” he said, before delivering his central message: “If you have a problem with men, you don’t need camera. You don’t need social media. You have a problem, come to me. Tell me anything in front of me.”

The rivalry has a clear competitive backdrop. Nurmagomedov challenged Dvalishvili for the UFC bantamweight title at UFC 311 in January 2025, losing a competitive decision. Dvalishvili subsequently defended the belt against Sean O’Malley and Cory Sandhagen before dropping the title to Petr Yan in their rematch at UFC 323 last December.

Dvalishvili is now set to face Yan in a trilogy bout for the bantamweight title in the co-main event of UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi in October, while Nurmagomedov has rebuilt his own momentum with back-to-back decision wins over Mario Bautista and former flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo.

With Song Yadong the immediate priority, Nurmagomedov made clear he has no interest in prolonging the war of words — but he is equally unwilling to let Dvalishvili’s comments go unanswered. “People think I just talk about him. I don’t need to talk about him,” he said. “When you’re asking about him, I tell.”