The mountains of Dagestan have been finally breached by Merab Dvalishvili as he successfully defended his bantamweight title against Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311. ‘The Machine’s insane cardio helped him to take Nurmagomedov’s undefeated status from him. The defeat might not be as crushing but it really did dent ‘The Young Eagle’s confidence. After a successful first two rounds, Umar Nurmagomedov’s pace slowed down as he failed to keep up with Dvalishvili.

Well, immediately after the clash, Umar Nurmagomedov revealed that he broke his hand in the first round and he fought the rest of the rounds with a broken hand. The 18-1 fighter shared some visuals of his broken hand on his Instagram handle and we could witness the severity of it. His entire fist has swollen, and it looks painful. Interestingly, Umar Nurmagomedov was warned about the possibility of injury days before his clash against ‘The Machine.’

The Dagestani fractured his hands several months ahead of his intended clash against the bantamweight champion. ‘The Young Eagle’ was trying to throw a punch during a demanding sparring session when he sustained the injury. Umar Nurmagomedov was advised to rest a bit but he initially refused and trained to face the bantamweight champion.

Regardless, after the loss, Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, took to his X handle to share the broken hand and caption it as “[Umar] broke his hands first round no excuse no excuse Alhamdulillah for everything.” Well, the fans appear to be in no mood to entertain anyone as they are divided over the injury.

MMA community reacts as Umar Nurmagomedov updates about his injury

Umar Nurmagomedov is known to be a good striker as his background is in Muay Thai, however, according to some fans, ‘The Young Eagle’ was not that attentive in the match, “He would put his head completely down and swing without looking at what he was really hitting when Merab come forward I’m not surprised he damaged it.”

Merab Dvalishvili broke Georges St-Pierre’s takedown record last night, which was 90, and it just goes to show why the fighter is nicknamed ‘The Machine. Looking at this, a fan wrote, “It’s hard but the champ outplayed him, his time will come, comeback stronger brother.” 

Furthermore, a fan retaliated and voiced in favor of Umar Nurmagomedov, “Broken hand first round and went to a 48-47 people are pretending was domination cause of showboating.2-2 into the last on two scorecards no one did that with Merab.” However, he was later disregarded by another fan who believes that being injured is not an excuse, “Not a hot take: Getting injured in a fight is not an excuse for losing.”

Merab Dvalishvili injured his back badly and also had stitches on his shin, which appeared to be painful. A fan took the champion’s side in the argument.“Body parts breaks in fights. But nobody likes talking about Merab was injured coming in to the fight.”

Last but not least, a fan highlighted the fact that Umar Nurmagomedov injured his hand months ago from the clash, “Umar had hand injury one month back and was advised to not take the fight in January.”

Well, injury or not, Merab Dvalishvili defeated Umar Nurmagomedov fair and square. What are your thoughts on the conclusion of the fight? State your opinion in the comments below.