Aljamain Sterling believes UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili is being rushed to defend his title.
Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) meets Umar Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in the UFC 311 co-main event (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) Jan. 18 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.
After claiming the bantamweight title this past September at UFC 306, Dvalishvili was looking to take some time off. However, he wound up booked against Nurmagomedov earlier than he wanted, and Sterling is bothered that Dvalishvili wasn’t given more time to prepare for his first title defense.
“This fight is being made on six weeks’ notice? Maybe six-and-a-half,” Sterling said on “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “For a title fight? I understand having to do that if you’re a challenger, but as a champion, you shouldn’t be relegated to those type of stipulations. It’s just not right.
“Then it leaves a bad taste in your mouth as in, ‘Why did I work so hard to get to this position to call the shots or some of the shots?’ And you’re not even getting a fair shake in it. Hopefully we go out there – knock on wood – Merab does his thing, he takes (Nurmagomedov’s) 0, puts on a great performance, and we can move on from this and on to the next.”
Sterling can relate to Dvalishvili’s current situation. After Sterling retained his bantamweight title against Henry Cejudo at UFC 288 in May 2023, he was asked to defend his belt against Sean O’Malley just more than three months later at UFC 292. He lost the fight by knockout.
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