Outside Source
Merab Dvalishvili made all kinds of headlines this past weekend, but it was teammate Dennis Buzukja who was caught on tape getting physical with a fan.
Buzukja and Dvalishvili were in attendance at UFC 310 in Las Vegas to corner Aljamain Sterling, who lost a unanimous decision to Movsar Evloev on Saturday. As the team walked to the back, an altercation erupted between a fan and Dvalishvili, and Buzukja ended up trading punches with the fan. Dvalishvili later shared a video claiming that the man in question was an associate of Umar Nurmagomedov, who challenges Dvalishvili for the bantamweight title at UFC 311 on Jan. 18.
On Sterling’s The Weekly Scraps Podcast, Sterling and Buzukja shared their recollection of the incident.
“Apparently this guy is a representative of Kazakhstan and friends with some of the [Dagestani] boys and that was very interesting,” Sterling said. “I guess he was provoking Merab on the way in to the arena and then on the way out as well. He put his hand on Merab’s shoulder to get his attention and whatnot, said whatever he said, I don’t know. But it seems like he provoked the whole shit to start.”
In the video that first circulated on social media, Dvalishvili is only seen being pulled away by security and it’s unclear what occurred before that. The video Dvalishvili later shared appeared to show the fan grabbing Dvalishvili’s arm first.
According to Buzukja, the fan actually antagonized them during the walkout and then made his way through the crowd to again confront the team as they exited from the octagon.
“I don’t know if he had touched Merab as we were walking in, but somehow he got Merab’s attention and then Merab went and tapped his shoulder and just gave him the finger and then the guy gave him the finger back or whatever, he got all jumpy,” Buzukja said.
“Then as the fight finished and we’re walking back on the other side, this f*cking guy comes across the whole crowd and then goes and, you’ve seen the video, he grabs Merab’s arm and then says something to him in, I guess Russian or whatever he said, and Merab started going crazy. Then we got into a little physical altercation, but that was really it. So hopefully no charges pressed and we move on.”
That “little physical altercation” involved Buzukja and the fan landing clean punches on one another before security intervened. It’s not something Buzukja planned, and he’s relieved it didn’t escalate beyond that.
“I went and approached him and I just put his hand down, I was trying to deescalate and tell him, ‘Yo, calm down, bro. Relax,’” Buzukja said. “Merab was going away, I just wanted to tell him to relax, have some respect. Then he cracked me first, actually, he cracked me with a nice little left hook and then it was just instinct to hit him back. Then security came in, but part of me is like, ‘Should I just drop the bucket and just jump over and start swinging?’ Just go full, f*cking degenerate, but I’m glad it didn’t happen that way.”
It is not yet known if any of the fighters involved will receive any reprimand or penalty from the UFC or the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Sterling is a former UFC bantamweight champion currently competing at 145 pounds, while Buzukja is still relatively new to the promotion, having gone 1-3 since debuting in 2023.
The whole incident left Sterling confused. If it’s true that the fan was an associate of Nurmagomedov’s team, Sterling thinks his behavior is at odds with the stoic and respectful code that they supposedly stand for.
“My thing is, he’s friends with these guys and they’re so big on respect,” Sterling said. “Why do you have your guys being assh*les? Like, in America, we say motherf*ckers, right? They don’t like when we call them a motherf*cker because it’s like the literal term like you f*cked your mother or whatever. But you’re being a motherf*cker by doing that.
“What are you doing? You’re being a complete assh*le. You reap what you sow. Why are you doing that? I don’t know, it’s weird.”
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
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