Merab Dvalishvili’s recent homecoming had plenty of heat behind the scenes. The former UFC bantamweight champion has now stepped in to explain what triggered the backstage altercation at the RAF event in Georgia last month.

The incident happened the day before ‘The Machine’ was to face Henry Cejudo for their wrestling match at RAF Georgia on July 11. After a fiery press conference, Dvalishvili claims he was simply chilling backstage when things suddenly went sideways. Speaking to Ariel Helwani in a recent interview, the Georgian opened up about what really went down.

“I was sitting, playing with my phone, super relaxed, super chilled, and then somebody came and grabbed my neck and pulled me over and started yelling at me in Russian language, which I hardly understand,” he told Helwani. “I know only a few words Russian and mostly bad words.

“He was telling me something very strong, like he mentioned Umar, and but I don’t know I don’t exactly understand what he told me, but how they wrote down later, I guess he told me, ‘I’m here, don’t talk about Umar, when I go you can talk,’ or something like this.”

Merab Dvalishvili admitted it took him a few seconds to understand why the man was confronting him backstage, especially because he had never met him before. However, what he did know was that the confrontation was another consequence of the rivalry between himself and Umar Nurmagomedov, which developed during the lead-up to their UFC 311 title fight. The man involved in the confrontation with Merab was Ahmed Gadzhimagomedov, a friend and supporter of his rival, Umar Nurmagomedov.

But for ‘The Machine,’ the confrontation with Nurmagomedov’s friend crossed a line because he believes the rivalry should remain between the two fighters.

“And then yes, I talked about Umar, but Umar starts first disrespect me, and then I talked s— about him in front of him, in press conferences, in public,” he contiinued. “And then after fight I shake his hand; he continued cry.

“He made me mad, and I still talk trash, and then we did fight. We gonna fight eventually. And then this is me and him. This is natural. I don’t really like (Umar). But who is this guy to tell me what to say about him? You know, it’s about me and Umar.”

While Merab has a history of outside-the-cage altercations like the one at UFC 310 and the one at the Craig Jones Invitational in August 2024, this time things were different.

It appears the way Gadzhimagomedov confronted him over Umar rubbed him the wrong way, which then led to the infamous slap and the subsequent altercation that escalated into an all-out brawl between the Merab’s team, the security at RAF Georgia, and the Dagestani contingent that was there for their wrestling match on the same card.

However, despite his ongoing enmity toward Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s cousin, the 35-year-old made it clear that his feud with Umar does not reflect his relationship with Dagestan or the rest of the Nurmagomedov squad.

Merab Dvalishvili insists Umar Nurmagomedov feud has not changed his respect for Dagestan

The Georgian further stated in the same interview that he has enormous respect for Khabib Nurmagomedov, the late Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, and many other fighters from their team and region. However, he did emphasize that there are still exceptions.

“I respect Umar’s family, Nurmagomedov’s family so much,” Merab Dvalishvili added. “Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, I have pictures; I post many times with him. And Khabib, Islam Makhachev, I have so much respect and the whole team, you know. I have many friends from Dagestan, like a long time, and I’m cool with them, and I have so much respect for all the Dagestani people, especially fighters.

“And the only guy who I don’t like from Dagestan that is Umar and his sneaky manager. [Rizvan Magomedov] is a sneaky guy. I found out later that he was, I guess, helping Umar disrespect me on X, making threats and writing all these disrespectful things about me and my country. If I do not like somebody [I do not fake the respect].”

And well, there is literal evidence that his relationship with other members of Team Khabib appears to be considerably different. Immediately after defeating Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311, Dvalishvili approached ‘The Eagle’ and shook his hand.

Islam Makhachev has also had a positive relationship with Merab Dvalishvili. After ‘The Machine’ lost his bantamweight title at UFC 323, Makhachev did not shy away from offering him some very public support on social media.

“Merab, you are one of the greatest to ever step into this cage,” Makhachev had noted on X.

So it appears that the bad blood will not boil over and ruin his relationship with the fighters in the region or their immediate camp. That means he can concentrate solely on his next fight, as Merab Dvalishvili will try to reclaim his UFC bantamweight title when he fights Petr Yan in their trilogy bout at UFC 333 in October. Umar Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, is all set to face Song Yadong this weekend in China at UFC Shanghai.