Aljamain Sterling thinks the percentages are in Merab Dvalishvili’s favor to beat Umar Nurmagomedov at UFC 311.
Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) defends his bantamweight title towards Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in Saturday’s co-main occasion (pay-per-view, ESPNews/Disney+, ESPN+) at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif.
Though betting odds recommend in any other case, Sterling is assured that his teammate will remind everybody why he’s unbeaten in his previous 11 appearances.
“I believe if we are able to preserve the battle the place we wish it, Merab goes to close lots of people up and going to show lots of people proper that he’s who he says he’s,” Sterling mentioned on his YouTube channel. “No disrespect to Umar by any means.
“For me, it simply comes down to at least one man has carried out the work and one man being propped up by the accolades of what his relative has carried out. I perceive he’s attempting to carve out his personal identify in historical past, however information are nonetheless information. The jury’s nonetheless out on Umar. We don’t actually know if he’s actually that man simply but.”
Sterling says his group has intricately damaged down Nurmagomedov’s recreation, and he’s assured Dvalishvili will be capable to shut him down.
“We all know he’s good, we all know he can battle, we all know he’s harmful on the bottom if he will get to your again,” Sterling mentioned. “We all know he’s received dynamic placing, we all know he’s exhausting to hit cleanly, we do know he’s been dropped earlier than by a debut man, (Bekzat Almakhan). We do know his placing – he’s southpaw, he switches, he has a extremely good lengthy entrance kick to the face, a pleasant query mark kick.
“What number of of these strikes did he really get off on Cory Sandhagen in Rounds 1, 2, 3 earlier than Sandhagen began to decelerate and get noticeably drained? So, there’s a variety of issues we actually paid consideration to after we have been breaking down the movie. … I believe that is going to come back right down to strain. I believe Merab goes to place the strain on him, and I believe good issues are going to occur.”
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