Former UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili was attacked by PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov and his entourage in a hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, three days before both men were scheduled to compete at a Real American Freestyle wrestling event.
Dvalishvili posted a video on Instagram showing himself with blood on his face and a heavily swollen left eye while medics treated him and a friend. "I was doing an interview for RAF in the hotel lobby and Usman and his buddies came up from behind and started punching me and my young friend," he wrote.
Footage of the incident, shared online by former two-division UFC champion Ilia Topuria before it was deleted, showed a group approaching Dvalishvili from behind as he rehearsed a promo for RAF. The National reported that Nurmagomedov struck Dvalishvili first, and a mass brawl followed. Topuria later claimed that Usman Nurmagomedov and his team had been detained by police, but there was no official confirmation of any detention, and neither Nurmagomedov brother, nor the RAF league, the UFC or the PFL had publicly commented.
The attack is the latest chapter in a feud dating to January 2025, when Dvalishvili beat Usman's older brother, Umar Nurmagomedov, in a title fight at UFC 311. Dvalishvili is scheduled to wrestle Marlon Moraes at RAF Abu Dhabi on Saturday at Etihad Arena, while Umar Nurmagomedov is set to face Urijah Faber on the same card, headlined by Khamzat Chimaev's challenge to Colby Covington. Whether Dvalishvili will be able to compete after the incident is not yet known.
Usman Nurmagomedov, 28, the cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov and a former Bellator lightweight champion, is a free agent after the final fight on his PFL contract. Rumors surfaced earlier this week that he had agreed to terms on a deal with the UFC, with an announcement expected this weekend at UFC 334.
