Why Din Thomas picks Merab Dvalishvili to upset Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311
Din Thomas doesn’t see Umar Nurmagomedov being the one to dethrone UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili.
Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) defends his bantamweight title against Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 311 (ESPN+ pay-per-view, ESPNews/Disney+, ESPN+) co-main event at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.
Although Thomas doesn’t see Dvalishvili holding onto the title for too long, he sees him handing Nurmagomedov his first loss.
“I think Merab wins against Umar,” Thomas told MMA Junkie. “I think Merab beats Umar. I just think that somewhere in that division, it catches up to him. I’m not sure Umar’s the guy though, and it’s not because I don’t think Umar is good enough. I just think that fighting comes down to moments and being able to deal with the pressure. Umar has a lot of weight to carry. The name, there’s a lot going on.
“And then for him to go out there and fight a guy like Merab. If it was anybody else, I would pick Umar, but a guy like Merab, who has built a career on finding these small, little holes in fighters. He finds these small, little holes and just exposes them just with his pressure, and his comfortability inside the cage. I think Umar has to watch out for that. I think Merab finds these little moments and breaks him.”
Nurmagomedov, 29, who’s a sizeable favorite going into the fight, is oozing confidence. In a recent interview with MMA Junkie, Nurmagomedov said he doesn’t see himself losing to Dvalishvili.
“In a fight, anything can happen,” Nurmagomedov told MMA Junkie. “I can’t tell you, ‘This is not going to happen, never, ever.’ But this guy will not beat me. Never, ever. I can tell you this one. I don’t know about takedowns or something else, but he will be never beat me. He don’t have skills to beat me.”
Thomas likes the confidence, but is concerned it may end up to his detriment if the fight isn’t going his way.
“That’s the problem,” Thomas said. “You got to have that level of confidence and when you have that level of confidence and everyone believing that about you – skill for skill, he’s a lot better than Merab. …He’s probably better than Merab everywhere. For sure, and on paper, he should win because he’s better everywhere, but it’s those things you can’t really place value on, things you can’t really measure, and that is the level of intensity that Merab brings to kind of even you out.
“Those are the things that I try to pay attention to with fighters, and the more confidence Umar has, when Merab keeps coming, and he’s like, ‘Damn, I thought this was going to be over,’ and you start to break, that’s when it really exposes itself. I just feel like he’s got all that confidence and when he realizes that Merab is not going to stop, and he’s like, ‘I’m better, but this guy will not stop,’ you start to lose confidence, you start to break, and I can see that happening in this fight.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.