Liar vs. coward! Nurmagomedov and Dvalishvili go hard in latest X exchange

The war of words between new bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili and his next expected challenger Umar Nurmagomedov is only getting more intense as the fighters trade accusations of ducking from the past and in the future.

Following a win over Cory Sandhagen in August, the UFC dubbed Nurmagomedov next in line for a bantamweight title shot. But after Dvalishvili took the 135 pound belt off Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, he started pushing for a fight with former UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo instead. That’s led to multiple debates between the two fighters over the worthiness of Umar as a title contender … which have now officially devolved into straight s— talking.

“I smacked Petr Yan’s a— like a b—, I carried Henry Cejudo like a baby, I kissed Sean O’Malley like his daddy,” Dvalishvili wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “BUT I will simply SMASH Umar if the UFC puts him in front of me next.”

“There is no if,” Nurmagomedov replied in his own tweet. “There is only one contender and that is me. You became champion only because you did not accept a fight with me twice before. For the same reason there are no fighters from the top 10 in my list of fights, you and those like you did not accept a fight with me.”

“Umar, now not only are you disrespectful, you are a liar,” Merab fired back. “If UFC offered you to fight with me two times, show the fans the contract and the dates.”

“They offered me to fight you right after I beat Petr Yan with a broken hand in six weeks,” he continued. “I accepted the fight verbally even thought i was No. 1 contender and you were No. 13 rank, and even with broken hand. Ultimately the doctor said no to this and I had surgery. So lets see the contract of the second offering??!!!”

“So if the UFC is gifting you the title defense, WTF are you talking trash and with disrespect? I’m done with you now because you keep lying — you lost my respect as a man and a martial artist. I will wait to hear from the UFC.”

“Is that the same injury you were ready to fight Cory [Sandhagen] with?” Umar asked. “I am just basing this on the manager’s words. Since prehistoric times no one cares about the respect of cowards.”

The fight hasn’t even been booked and already Dvalishvili and Nurmagomedov are throwing around loaded words like ‘liar’ and ‘coward.’ That may just be typical trash talk to North Americans, but them’s fighting words in the Caucasus. As we know from past incidents, Merab is not the type to be disrespected without a response. We wouldn’t even be surprised if his latest near-brawl with a fan in the stands at UFC Paris involved accusations of Umar-ducking.

So to be called a coward by Nurmagomedov? The UFC better set this fight up soon before these two end up scrapping in the Performance Institute parking lot.