18 wins without any losses. That was Umar Nurmagomedov’s record prior to UFC 311, and he was being hyped as the second coming of his cousin, Khabib Nurmagomedov. But Merab Dvalishvili flipped the script and dominated the Dagestan native, giving him his first taste of defeat. But even though ‘The Machine’ handed him his first loss, Umar doesn’t seem to have any feelings of hostility towards his Georgian counterpart.

Merab Dvalishvili has quickly become one of the biggest stars on the current UFC roster. And Umar Nurmagomedov agrees as much. The Dagestan native, who’s making his return this weekend against Mario Bautista at UFC 321, even pushed ‘The Machine’ for a special honor, which is the ‘Fighter of the Year’. Here’s what he had to say.

Umar Nurmagomedov claims Merab Dvalishvili is the ‘Fighter of the Year’

Last year, we saw Alex Pereira fight three times over 12 months. This time, it’s Merab Dvalishvili, who’s putting his title up for grabs at UFC 323, and is on his way to overtake that record and fight for a fourth time in 2025. Umar Nurmagomedov believes it is astounding how active and consistent ‘The Machine’ has been inside the Octagon. Given his track record this year, ‘Young Eagle’ claims that Dvalishvili should win the ‘Fighter of the Year’ honor.

“I think he deserves [to] be ‘Fighter of the Year’ if to be honest because he will fight fourth time [this year] for the title. He’ll defend, you know. It’s nobody do it,” Umar Nurmagomedov told Josh Thomson on the Weighing In podcast. “He’s very active, and it’s amazing. What you can say? Anybody will tell this. Not just me, anybody will tell his good result. It’s good… As a fighter, he’s good.”

Merab Dvalishvili’s work ethic has also helped him garner support from Dana White, who claimed that it took “a minute to warm up to Merab” during the recent Contender Series presser. When Josh Thomson brought this up during the interview with Umar Nurmagomedov, the Dagestan native claimed that Dvalishvili deserves the nod from the CEO. “He’s not a young guy and he fights very, very well and very active.”

Well, it’s not just Umar Nurmagomedov who has praised Merab Dvalishvili. Others have done it, too. But amidst all the praise the Dagestan native shared, he was a bit skeptical about the bantamweight champion’s chances of beating Petr Yan at UFC 323.

Petr Yan won’t be an easy challenge for Dvalishvili, claims Umar

Umar Nurmagomedov may have given a shout-out to Merab Dvalishvili to become the ‘Fighter of the Year’, but he believes that there is a chance that he will not end the year with the belt around his waist. He highlighted the strong point in Petr Yan‘s fight game, his striking, but also claimed that ‘No Mercy’ will have to be extra careful when it comes to defending Dvalishvili’s takedown attempts.

“I think yes, he’s [Yan] very good with his [hands], and always any fighter has a chance. Just will depend how he defends takedowns, but he’s very athletic. They’re both good, and we’re going to see what happens,” Umar Nurmagomedov told MMA Junkie.

An interesting nod from the Dagestani to Yan. The Russian former champion revealed earlier this month that he was not fully fit for the first fight against Dvalishvili. “I believe it’s going to be a great fight, last time I was compromised, I was at 50 percent. If you just look at the stats, you can see that I only used my right hand 3 to 4 times. I couldn’t punch with my right hand. I also couldn’t use it to defend the wrestling, those are just facts. When you compare it to my other fights, that’s the hand I used the most. I can’t say that I don’t regret (fighting), but at least I have the opportunity to win the rematch,” he said on The Ariel Helwani Show.

Coming back to Umar, henthen gave his take on his plans for a title fight rematch against ‘the Machine’ if he gets past Mario Bautista, saying, “We’ll see what happens after our fights. But I want to fight in January or February.”

At the UFC 311 presser, there were a lot of heated moments between Umar Nurmagomedov and Merab Dvalishvili. But that seems to have happened due to their competitive nature because outside of the Octagon, it’s all about respect. What do you think about Umar’s comments? Drop your comments below.