Dvalishvili says Usman Nurmagomedov and friends attacked him in Abu Dhabi hotel

Former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili posted a video on Instagram on Wednesday showing himself covered in blood and said he and a friend had been attacked in an Abu Dhabi hotel by the mixed martial artist Usman Nurmagomedov and his friends.

Dvalishvili said he was giving an interview to the RAF league in the hotel lobby when Usman and his friends came up from behind and started hitting him and his friend. “There were only two of us, me and my friend,” he says in the video. He said security held him back while the attackers kept hitting them, and that he did not know how many attackers there were.

“I'm fine, I'm a warrior. It means nothing to me, but it shows who you really are,” the Georgian said. He told his rivals that if they wanted to fight, they should do it “like men”.

There was no comment from Usman Nurmagomedov or RAF at the time of publication, so the incident is so far known only from Dvalishvili's account.

A long-running feud with the Nurmagomedov camp

Dvalishvili has been feuding with the Nurmagomedov camp for a long time. He beat Umar Nurmagomedov in a title fight at UFC 311 in January 2025, and the insults between the two have not stopped since. In the summer, before an RAF event in Georgia, Dvalishvili hit Ahmed Gadzhimagomedov after Gadzhimagomedov asked him why he spoke negatively about Umar.

RAF event ahead

On 24 October at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, Dvalishvili lost his third fight against Russia's Petr Yan by unanimous decision and failed to regain the title. On 14 November he is due to compete at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi at an event of Real American Freestyle (RAF), a freestyle wrestling league, headlined by Khamzat Chimaev against Colby Covington. It is not yet known whether Dvalishvili will be able to take part.