Tag: ufc 311

EPO or Genetics? Georges St-Pierre’s Trainer Weighs In on Merab Dvalishvili’s Legendary Cardio

EPO or Genetics? Georges St-Pierre's Trainer Weighs In on Merab Dvalishvili's Legendary CardioEPO or Genetics? That’s the question surrounding Merab Dvalishvili’s bottomless gas tank inside the Octagon. UFC 311 saw ‘The…

EPO or Genetics? Georges St-Pierre's Trainer Weighs In on Merab Dvalishvili's Legendary Cardio

EPO or Genetics? That’s the question surrounding Merab Dvalishvili’s bottomless gas tank inside the Octagon.

UFC 311 saw ‘The Machine’ score his first successful defense of the bantamweight title, outworking previously undefeated Dagestani star Umar Nurmagomedov in the evening’s co-main event. Nurmagomedov went into the bout as a greater-than-2-to-1 favorite to come out on top and end Dvalishvili’s reign early. However, the Georgian has other plans.

gettyimages 2194649283 612x612 2

After surrendering the first two rounds on two of the three judges’ scorecards, Dvalishvili began to wear on his opponent, using his legendary cardio to slowly take over the bout and extend his own unbeaten streak to 12.

gettyimages 2194086231 612x612 1 1

Firas Zahabi thinks Merab Dvalishvili has been graced with great genetics

Discussing Dvalishvili’s mind-blowing cardio, TriStar Gym proprietor and former GSP coach Firas Zahabi believes that ‘The Machine’ has been graced with good genetics and was quick to disregard the notion that Dvalishvili could be utilizing EPO or another type of performance-enhancing substance.

“His conditioning is just unreal, you know. I’ve seen guys get caught on drugs, and EPO, who didn’t have cardio like him. I’m not saying he’s on EPO, I’m just saying that even if you are on EPO, you just don’t have that level of cardio,” Zahabi said on the TriStar Gym YouTube channel.

“I’m not saying any of these guys are doping. I don’t think Mayweather dopes at all, or that Merab is doping. I’m just saying, like, it’s genetic, okay? Because you can go and do their workout, you can go and try to copy them—it’s useless. It’s totally useless. Okay, it’s got to be genetic. It’s got to be genetic. It can’t be, ‘Oh, this guy’s doing a secret formula.’ That would blow my mind. That would really blow my mind. That would really shock me. No, it’s genetic.”

The win over Nurmagomedov moved Dvalishvili’s record to 12-2 under the UFC banner, 19-4 overall.

gettyimages 2194650554 612x612 1

Report: No Backups Set For UFC 312 Title Fights Despite Late Scramble To Save UFC 311 Main Event

Dana White and co. will have their fingers crossed that there isn’t a repeat of the late withdrawal in Los Angeles earlier this month when the promotion heads Down Under for UFC 312. After opening its pay-per-view schedule for 2025 with UFC 311 from Inglewood’s Intuit Dome, the mixed martial arts leader is taking the […]

Dana White and co. will have their fingers crossed that there isn’t a repeat of the late withdrawal in Los Angeles earlier this month when the promotion heads Down Under for UFC 312.

After opening its pay-per-view schedule for 2025 with UFC 311 from Inglewood’s Intuit Dome, the mixed martial arts leader is taking the Octagon abroad for a return to Australia in February.

Two names familiar to the attending Aussie fanbase will compete inside Qudos Bank Arena, with last year’s Sydney headliner, Dricus Du Plessis, meeting 2023’s main event victor in the city, Sean Strickland.

Their middleweight championship rematch won’t be the only title fight on the UFC 312 card, with strawweight queen Zhang Weili also set to defend her throne opposite undefeated challenger Tatiana Suarez.

While anticipation is building for those contests, fans will be well aware that no matchup is certain to go down until the cage door closes behind the athletes.

That much was evident a few weeks back when Arman Tsarukyan pulled out of the UFC 311 main event, forcing the promotion to find a new foe for Islam Makhachev on just 24 hours’ notice. The Dagestani ultimately faced Renato Moicano, whom he steamrolled in minutes.

Disappointment was evident when the highly awaited second clash between Makhachev and Tsarukyan fell through, but that scenario hasn’t convinced the UFC to make additional arrangements for the second PPV of the year.

Per MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin, no fighters are currently expected to make the long-haul flight to Australia to serve as backup for the UFC 312 main or co-main events.

The organization has often paid contenders to hit the scale as alternative options should injury or illness strike late in the day. But that hasn’t been the case since Tom Aspinall did so back at UFC 309 in November.

Backups were neither present for Alexandre Pantoja’s title defense at UFC 310 against Kai Asakura nor the pair of championship clashes on Jan. 18. UFC 312 will now make it three PPVs on the bounce in that regard.

Report: No Backups Set For UFC 312 Title Fights Despite Late Scramble To Save UFC 311 Main Event

Dana White and co. will have their fingers crossed that there isn’t a repeat of the late withdrawal in Los Angeles earlier this month when the promotion heads Down Under for UFC 312. After opening its pay-per-view schedule for 2025 with UFC 311 from Inglewood’s Intuit Dome, the mixed martial arts leader is taking the […]

Dana White and co. will have their fingers crossed that there isn’t a repeat of the late withdrawal in Los Angeles earlier this month when the promotion heads Down Under for UFC 312.

After opening its pay-per-view schedule for 2025 with UFC 311 from Inglewood’s Intuit Dome, the mixed martial arts leader is taking the Octagon abroad for a return to Australia in February.

Two names familiar to the attending Aussie fanbase will compete inside Qudos Bank Arena, with last year’s Sydney headliner, Dricus Du Plessis, meeting 2023’s main event victor in the city, Sean Strickland.

Their middleweight championship rematch won’t be the only title fight on the UFC 312 card, with strawweight queen Zhang Weili also set to defend her throne opposite undefeated challenger Tatiana Suarez.

While anticipation is building for those contests, fans will be well aware that no matchup is certain to go down until the cage door closes behind the athletes.

That much was evident a few weeks back when Arman Tsarukyan pulled out of the UFC 311 main event, forcing the promotion to find a new foe for Islam Makhachev on just 24 hours’ notice. The Dagestani ultimately faced Renato Moicano, whom he steamrolled in minutes.

Disappointment was evident when the highly awaited second clash between Makhachev and Tsarukyan fell through, but that scenario hasn’t convinced the UFC to make additional arrangements for the second PPV of the year.

Per MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin, no fighters are currently expected to make the long-haul flight to Australia to serve as backup for the UFC 312 main or co-main events.

The organization has often paid contenders to hit the scale as alternative options should injury or illness strike late in the day. But that hasn’t been the case since Tom Aspinall did so back at UFC 309 in November.

Backups were neither present for Alexandre Pantoja’s title defense at UFC 310 against Kai Asakura nor the pair of championship clashes on Jan. 18. UFC 312 will now make it three PPVs on the bounce in that regard.

Khabib Nurmagomedov Has ‘Got To Improve’ As A Coach After Umar’s UFC 311 Loss, Says Ex-Title Challenger

UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns doesn’t think Khabib Nurmagomedov handled things perfectly in the corner of his cousin, Umar, earlier this month. The previously undefeated bantamweight challenged for Merab Dvalishvili’s title in the co-main event of UFC 311, staged inside the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. After a strong start, Nurmagomedov was unable to continue […]

UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns doesn’t think Khabib Nurmagomedov handled things perfectly in the corner of his cousin, Umar, earlier this month.

The previously undefeated bantamweight challenged for Merab Dvalishvili’s title in the co-main event of UFC 311, staged inside the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.

After a strong start, Nurmagomedov was unable to continue his momentum into the latter rounds, with the Georgian champion’s renowned pace and cardio once again proving to be the difference and setting up a decision victory.

During an episode of his and Renato Moicano’s Show Me The Money podcast, Burns gave his assessment of the contest and outlined where the challenger’s team might have gone wrong.

Though he noted his immense respect for Khabib, “Durinho” saw some holes in the coaching game of the former UFC lightweight champion.

“I have so much respect for the Dagestani guys and Khabib, but I just gotta say this — Khabib Nurmagomedov as a main coach, people gonna hate on this, still got to improve a lot,” Burns said. “When Umar started getting tired, he came to the corner with those question eyes, like, he didn’t know what to do. And when I looked at Khabib and his corner, they had the same eyes — like, ‘Oh my God.’

“Guys like ‘Parrumpa’ and Henry (Hooft), they calm you down and tell you exactly what to do — ‘You lost that round, now do this and this.’ They’ve been in so many corners, you can’t even count,” Burns continued. “I have a lot of respect for him (Khabib), but coaching takes time and repetition.”

Khabib seemingly won’t be sticking around as long as the trainers named by Burns, however, having outlined his plans to hang up his coaching gloves when his current crop of fighters depart the sport.

For now, though, the Dagestani remains focused on developing his team. He was most recently in Dubai for a successful PFL main event for another of his cousins, Bellator Lightweight Champion Usman Nurmagomedov.

Usman Nurmagomedov Believes Brother Umar ‘Won The First Three Rounds’ vs. Merab Dvalishvili 

Umar Nurmagomedov was pretty clear that he thought he did enough to win the bantamweight title at UFC 311. All three judges had the fight scored in favor of the defending champion, Merab Dvalishvili, but Umar’s own brother disputes this. A lot of fight fans, and two of the three judges, had the challenger winning […]

Umar Nurmagomedov was pretty clear that he thought he did enough to win the bantamweight title at UFC 311. All three judges had the fight scored in favor of the defending champion, Merab Dvalishvili, but Umar’s own brother disputes this.

A lot of fight fans, and two of the three judges, had the challenger winning the first two rounds of the fight where he was able to successfully implement his striking whilst defending takedowns from the champion. The most significant round of the fight ended up being the third where all of a sudden, the tide appeared to be turning.

Whilst the round was competitive, the consensus opinion was that Dvalishvili was able to change the momentum of the contest in this period by starting to have more success with his constant pressure and output which started to wear on his opponent. Usman Nurmagomedov believes that the Georgian’s success in this round was not enough for him to get a 10 next to his name on the scorecards.

The undefeated Bellator lightweight champion returns this weekend to face Paul Hughes in Dubai following an incredibly busy few weeks for his team and family. Nurmagomedov spoke in a recent interview with MMA Junkie about how from his point of view, “The Machine” needed a finish in the championship rounds to keep hold of the title.

“Honestly, I was a little surprised because I thought Umar won the first three rounds,” Usman said. “When they said ‘and still,’ I thought they were going to say ‘and still undefeated.’ But anyway, Alhamdulillah. Of course, this has some effect on me, but I try to keep it inside of me. I don’t want to talk about that with people.”

Despite this, Nurmagomedov is confident that his older brother will bounce back and that this just another chapter in his journey.

“It’s just one step back for the streak, you know, Inshallah. All good Alhamdulillah for everything, we’re always thankful for God, and this time the same thing. Nothing changes.

Usman Nurmagomedov Believes Brother Umar ‘Won The First Three Rounds’ vs. Merab Dvalishvili 

Umar Nurmagomedov was pretty clear that he thought he did enough to win the bantamweight title at UFC 311. All three judges had the fight scored in favor of the defending champion, Merab Dvalishvili, but Umar’s own brother disputes this. A lot of fight fans, and two of the three judges, had the challenger winning […]

Umar Nurmagomedov was pretty clear that he thought he did enough to win the bantamweight title at UFC 311. All three judges had the fight scored in favor of the defending champion, Merab Dvalishvili, but Umar’s own brother disputes this.

A lot of fight fans, and two of the three judges, had the challenger winning the first two rounds of the fight where he was able to successfully implement his striking whilst defending takedowns from the champion. The most significant round of the fight ended up being the third where all of a sudden, the tide appeared to be turning.

Whilst the round was competitive, the consensus opinion was that Dvalishvili was able to change the momentum of the contest in this period by starting to have more success with his constant pressure and output which started to wear on his opponent. Usman Nurmagomedov believes that the Georgian’s success in this round was not enough for him to get a 10 next to his name on the scorecards.

The undefeated Bellator lightweight champion returns this weekend to face Paul Hughes in Dubai following an incredibly busy few weeks for his team and family. Nurmagomedov spoke in a recent interview with MMA Junkie about how from his point of view, “The Machine” needed a finish in the championship rounds to keep hold of the title.

“Honestly, I was a little surprised because I thought Umar won the first three rounds,” Usman said. “When they said ‘and still,’ I thought they were going to say ‘and still undefeated.’ But anyway, Alhamdulillah. Of course, this has some effect on me, but I try to keep it inside of me. I don’t want to talk about that with people.”

Despite this, Nurmagomedov is confident that his older brother will bounce back and that this just another chapter in his journey.

“It’s just one step back for the streak, you know, Inshallah. All good Alhamdulillah for everything, we’re always thankful for God, and this time the same thing. Nothing changes.