Usman Nurmagomedov is unbeaten in the cage. Outside it, the trouble keeps finding him 👀 In 2021 he was detained in Moscow after the car he was in ran over a traffic cop in Dagestan. In 2023 a failed drug test cost him six months, a $50K fine and his Bellator 300 win. In August he hopped the cage at UFC Shanghai after Song Yadong knocked out Umar. Now Merab says Usman and his crew jumped him in a hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi. He is still a free agent, which makes the UFC’s next move a big one. Does any of this change how you see Usman? #UsmanNurmagomedov #MerabDvalishvili #MMA
Merab Dvalishvili says he was attacked in a hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi by Usman Nurmagomedov and members of his crew, the latest controversy to surround the unbeaten Russian. The allegation has not been independently confirmed, and the account so far comes from Dvalishvili's side.
The claim lands on top of a pattern of off-cage trouble for Nurmagomedov. In 2021 he was detained in Moscow after the car he was riding in struck a traffic officer in Dagestan. In 2023 a failed drug test cost him six months, a $50,000 fine and his Bellator 300 win. In August he jumped the cage at UFC Shanghai after Song Yadong knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov. He remains a free agent, which puts added weight on whatever the UFC decides to do next.
Nurmagomedov is 22-0, ranked 14th on the pound-for-pound list and 27 years old. The Russian lands 0.33 significant strikes per minute at 52.78 percent accuracy, and averages 0.65 takedowns per 15 minutes. He has no recorded submission attempts.
Dvalishvili, 35, is 21-6 and sits at No. 1 in the bantamweight rankings and No. 2 pound-for-pound. The Georgian, who trains with the Serra-Longo Fight Team, lands 4.48 significant strikes per minute at 41 percent accuracy and averages 5.74 takedowns per 15 minutes, a pace that has defined his career. His most recent recorded fight was a unanimous decision loss to Petr Yan in a title bout at UFC 333 on October 24, following another five-round decision loss to Yan at UFC 323 in December 2025.
The physical gap between the two is notable. Nurmagomedov is five-foot-eleven with a 71-inch reach, while Dvalishvili stands five-foot-six with a 68-inch reach, a difference of five inches in height and three in reach, though the two have no recorded fight against each other.
Why it matters
- Nurmagomedov's contract status is unresolved, so any disciplinary or signing decision by the UFC would come with this allegation in the background.
- His record of off-cage incidents, from the Moscow detention to the failed test to the Shanghai cage jump, now includes a physical-altercation claim against a top-ranked bantamweight.
- Dvalishvili is coming off back-to-back title-fight losses to Yan, so the story intersects with an uncertain stretch of his own career.
