Javier Mendez Disagrees with Notion that Umar Nurmagomedov Doesn’t Deserve UFC 311 Title Bout
Speaking to Danny Segura on Hablemos MMA, courtesy of MMAJunkie, American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez reacted to Merab Dvalishvili’s comments.
“This is what I say: When he fought Cory Sandhagen, UFC said that whoever wins that fight would fight for the title – whether it was going to be Sean O’Malley or Merab,” Mendez told Hablemos MMA in Spanish. “That’s what the UFC told Umar and Sandhagen. So why now that the fight is over, and Umar won, why is it that what UFC had said should no longer be true? UFC wants this fight. That’s why they brought Umar to the Sphere, right?
“When (Dvalishvili) won, and they interviewed him, and they said this is your next challenge, Merab said, ‘Oh, Dana needs to talk to me. He needs to get to know me as a person, and then we’ll talk about it.’ Why? The UFC wanted this fight. Umar didn’t say, ‘Hey, I need to fight for the title if I beat Sandhagen.’ No, they were the ones that said the winner would go for the title next, so that’s all we’re doing. Umar told me, ‘Look, coach. If they don’t give me the title, I just want to fight before Ramadan.’ That’s all. He just wanted to fight.”
Mendez will be busy at UFC 311, as another one of his fighters will also be in action. Islam Makhachev gets top billing as he defends his UFC Lightweight Championship against Arman Tsarukyan. Be sure to stick with BJPenn.com, as we’ll be providing live updates throughout fight night.
