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Merab Dvalishvili Urges Islam Makhachev to Fight Ilia Topuria

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Merab Dvalishvili wants Islam Makhachev to live up to his own standards.

Dvalishvili was initially loathe to make his first bantamweight title defense against Makhachev’s cousin, Umar Nurmagomedov. Makhachev then expressed his respect for Dvalishvili while asking him to not shy away from fighting a deserving contender. Dvalishvili eventually accepted the booking and successfully defended his title against a previously undefeated Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 earlier this year.

Now Dvalishvili’s countryman Ilia Topuria has vacated his featherweight title in quest for a lightweight title shot against Makhachev. However, Makhachev is unwilling to fight “La Leyenda” until the Georgian-Spaniard has proved himself at 155 pounds. However, Dvalishvili already considers his undefeated friend the most deserving title contender at lightweight. And “The Machine” is urging Makhachev to fight Topuria just like the lightweight champ had asked him to fight Nurmagomedov.

“Ilia has to fight Islam Makhachev. Especially [since] he vacated his belt,” Dvalishvili told Ariel Helwani. “And he’s not a 145’er anymore. And he’s the best deserving contender for the 155 belt. But somehow Islam [is] ignoring him. I’m sure everybody remembers that Islam told me [at the] press conference, ‘Merab I respect you. But when you have a top contender, you should fight him.’ And I said, ‘OK, I’m fighting.’ But now he has a top contender as Ilia Topuria, but he’s not fighting.”

Makhachev has defended his title four times, most recently against Renato Carneiro at UFC 311. Meanwhile, Topuria won the title against Alexander Volkanovski and defended it against Max Holloway before vacating it.

Dvalishvili is now set to defend his throne in a rematch against Sean O’Malley at UFC 316 on June 7 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com

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