The much-anticipated bantamweight clash between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov has finally been announced for UFC 311. Dana White recently opened up about a fascinating story of their fight being scheduled prior to the announcement of next year’s first pay-per-view event.
In his recent X post, White disclosed that Nurmagomedov will challenge Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title in the co-main event of UFC 311 which will take place on Jan. 18 next year at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
‘Just finalized last night, the co-main event will now be a bantamweight title fight between the champion Merab Dvalishvili and undefeated No. 1 contender Umar Nurmagomedov.”
White shared the story of how the bantamweight title fight was booked.
Merab came into the office late last night, told us that he is tired of listening to Umar disrespect him and wanted to make this fight happen as soon as possible. We called Umar, he was sleeping in Dagestan. He said, ‘hell yes, anywhere and anytime’.’
Check out Dana White’s comments below:
Makhachev vs Tsarukyan and Dvalishvili vs Nurmagomedov is LIVE January 18th from @intuitdome, California! #UFC311 pic.twitter.com/XZuAFUYAyC
— danawhite (@danawhite) December 5, 2024
The two will head into the bantamweight title fight with much animosity, as Dvalishvili has repeatedly disregarded Nurmagomedov as the next contender. Their feud intensified after the reigning champion called out former champion Petr Yan following his victory at UFC Macau last month.
In reaction, Nurmagomedov and Sean O’Malley blasted the Georgian, claiming that Dvalishvili was terrified of the Dagestan fighter.
As for their MMA run, Dvalishvili is currently on an 11-fight win streak. In his recent octagon outing at Noche UFC 306 this September, ‘The Machine’ put on a dominant display against O’Malley, defeating him via unanimous decision to capture the UFC Gold.
Meanwhile, Nurmagomedov is undefeated in his professional MMA career. He is coming off a unanimous decision win against Cory Sandhagen at UFC Abu Dhabi earlier this year.