Merab Dvalishvili is out of custody in Abu Dhabi. Real American Freestyle officials said Friday that the UFC bantamweight champion is “back with them” following his hotel brawl with Usman Nurmagomedov and Nurmagomedov’s team, per MMA Fighting. MMA Mania reported that Dvalishvili was released from jail thanks to an intervention by the RAF CEO.
That’s the news. The sources don’t yet say what he was held on, whether anything is pending, or how long the process took once RAF got involved. MMA Fighting posted RAF’s update on his status Friday morning, roughly two days after the footage started circulating.
How it got here
The video hit social media Wednesday, November 11. Championship Rounds reported that Ilia Topuria posted footage of Nurmagomedov jumping Dvalishvili, and Red Corner MMA followed with what it called the full footage of the scuffle. Championship Rounds called that longer clip insane, which, for an account that uses the siren emoji the way I use antacids, still tells you something.
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Topuria didn’t stop at posting the clip. Quoting the Red Corner video on X, he wrote, “Usman has reportedly been detained, along with the cowards who were with him.” He went after the group’s public image too, writing, “Honor, respect, and humility aren’t words you preach. They’re values you live by. And you’ve shown none of them.” Note the word “reportedly” there. Topuria’s post is the only source here on Nurmagomedov being detained, and none of the sources confirm his current status.
Sean Strickland weighed in on X as well, calling Nurmagomedov names and accusing him and his crew of acting tough while waiting to attack people who aren’t looking. It was Strickland being Strickland, and he went well past the fight itself in that post.
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What we have on the record is thin. There was a hotel brawl in Abu Dhabi. There’s video of it. Dvalishvili was jailed, and now he isn’t, and the RAF CEO gets the credit per MMA Mania. None of the reports so far spell out any consequences for anyone involved, from the UAE side or the UFC side.
Quick take
I’ve spent decades pricing what happens inside a cage, and I still can’t put a number on what happens in a hotel lobby, which is why I don’t bet on lobbies. The detail worth watching is that a wrestling outfit, not the UFC, is the one doing the public talking about the bantamweight champ’s whereabouts. RAF had him “back with them” before anyone else had a statement out. Until someone puts real paperwork in front of reporters, the only hard number in this story is two, as in the two days between Topuria hitting post on that footage and RAF telling the world their guy was free.
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