Merab Dvalishvili’s staph infection at UFC 311 was so severe that “regular people” might have “had their leg amputated” in his position, it has been claimed.
Dvalishvili fought through a back injury and infected leg to win a narrow decision over Umar Nurmagomedov, retaining his bantamweight title in the process.
With that result, the Georgian also handed Nurmagomedov – cousin of UFC icon Khabib – his first professional loss. And Nurmagomedov apparently faced his own adversity during the five-round fight, breaking his hand in round one.
During a post-fight breakdown of UFC 311, MMA insider Ariel Helwani said: “Someone close to Merab told me that regular people would have probably had their leg amputated, if they had to deal with the staph infection that he had on his leg.
“He was just, like, taping it up and going to practice […] Also, as he alluded to, [he had] a very, very serious back injury.”
After UFC 311, Nurmagomedov revealed he had broken his hand early in the fight, a claim that was put to Dvalishvili. The champion said: “I broke my back in training camp and it was some days I cannot get up from the bed.
“I was laid down and I don’t have a training camp, and I don’t have a Khabib Nurmagomedov to help me to train. Some days the P.I. [UFC Performance Institute] was closed. It was Christmas and it was New Year’s and weekends, and it happened a couple of times: Umar was there and the security goes, ‘I’m sorry. We cannot let you go in.’
“I’m not making this excuse. You’re a f***ing fighter and you’ve got to find a way to win […] I don’t know, as a fighter I respect him. God bless him, I wish him all the best, but it’s a fight. But guess what? Who broke his hand?”
Opening up on his own injury issues, Dvalishvili added: “In November, I got big cuts on my leg. This just healed up Wednesday and closed, finally. It was big cuts, it was taking so long to heal up, and then it gets infected.
“And then every time somebody touched me and I was doing wrestling or kicking, it was so painful. That was a challenge for this training camp. Then I had this fight and I’m laid down in my bed, I’m depressed, I cannot go [to the] gym.
“Umar Nurmagomedov [was] talking trash: ‘Merab will pull out. I won’t be surprised if Merab pulls out.’ I’m like: ‘No! I’m not going to pull out.’ I never pull out.”
