The relationship between UFC CEO Dana White and bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili hasn’t always been smooth, but Dvalishvili is happy with where things are at in 2025.
Dvalishvili puts his title on the line for the first time against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 on Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. “The Machine” has been involved in a few incidents with fans in 2024, including at UFC 310 following teammate Aljamain Sterling’s loss to Movsar Evloev.
Following that clip going viral, White was asked about the situation and called Dvalishvili his mini-Sean Strickland “without the mouth,” but Dvalishvili feels that White had his back in the situation, even though he was in the headline muck prior to the fight with Nurmagomedov getting announced.
“He defended me,” Dvalishvili told MMA Fighting. “Before the media always ask him like weird question about me, ‘How about Merab? [What] about him doing this?’ Why is media asking? They only do because Dana [can] answer in like a bad way, and that’s what he was doing. But this time, he defended me. The media again, ‘Merab is scared of Umar.’ Bro, Dana knows that I’m not scared. I always say yes every time they mention his name, I say yes, and Dana [says it’s] true.
“Yeah, so Umar’s friend tried to [provoke] me and then do something bad for me, and make me look bad. I’m a professional fighter. I love people. Usually when I walk through the crowd, I give everybody love, support, and I’m happy, you know. But this guy, he was recording me like this [with his phone out]I thought he was a friend and he was talking to me, and I go close to him. I was smiling. He was talking in Russian language and I know the bad words. We all know all the bad words, and then I wanted to fight the guy, but security jumped in. This guy provoked me.
“So then Dana defended me and thank [you to] him. I love you the UFC, I’m just grateful for this company and everything else, but there are so many haters, and there is so many [people] — also in media, not everybody’s professional and not everybody want to have a good energy because we all know the drama [sells more]. They try to ask you crazy questions and that’s why I have a good relationship with them and we have no problem.”
Dvalishvili enters his first title defense on an 11-fight win streak that dates back nearly seven years. The 34-year-old captured UFC gold for the first time with a dominant decision win over prior champ Sean O’Malley in the main event of UFC 306 this past September.
Nurmagomedov is 18-0 as a pro, including a 6-0 start to his UFC run. The 29-year-old earned his shot with an incredible performance in his first promotional headliner at UFC Abu Dhabi this past August, earning a unanimous decision over perennial contender Cory Sandhagen.
When White announced the bout, he said Dvalishvili went to the UFC offices and wanted the fight made as soon as possible, as Dvalishvili was “tired of listening to Umar disrespect him.” While the short turnaround isn’t ideal, Dvalishvili wanted to be a team player.
“UFC really needed to me in January and once I heard that, I just go to office and we [had] a conversation,” Dvalishvili said. I said, ‘I’m so tired of this guy or disrespect me, and yeah, OK I will fight him. I will step in.’
“I stepped up, said OK. I’m fighting him. That’s how it happened.”
