Let's not forget the hilariously delusional narrative that Merab was "ducking" Umar

[Portland8242]

Merab - winning his fight in September, not only accepted the fight on a relatively short around to fight Umar, but also had a back injury that was effecting him, still accepted the fight. 28 stitches in his leg essentially giving him all the reason he needs if he wanted to pull out ? Nope, literally fooled the CASC by showing the same leg twice, pulled a Bisping.

A lot of smooth brains seemed to misinterpret Merab calling out Umar for getting an easy path up the rankings and an easy path to the title as "ducking". Merab - the guy who literally had to clear out the division before he got a shot, was very vocal about Umar's "privilege" with his last name and never in anyway stated that he wasn't down to fight him.

Literally just watched a Javier Mendez interview where he essentially blamed the entire loss on Umar's broken hand, yet apparently all the stuff Merab was battling in his camp was totally irrelevant.. His camp is DELUSIONAL.

Dagestani moron fanboys really outdid themselves with this one how it all turned out.

 

[BigTruck]

That's a lot to write just to say eat crow to the haters but ok.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

hindsight is 20/20, at the time merab was raging at reporters and fans who asked about umar and merab weirdly talked about fighting figgy even though he didn't beat anyone as good as sandhagen like Umar. Merab proved he wasn't scared of umar and is a better fighter but let's not act like he wasn't behaving weirdly prior to taking the fight

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

"I don't want to fight him! He doesn't deserve it! I want a rematch with other guys I beat easily!"

 

[Portland8242]

"I don't want to fight him! He doesn't deserve it! I want a rematch with other guys I beat easily!"

Fantastic quotes!

How about the part where actually signed the fight and defeated Umar??

28 stitches in his leg literally gave him all the reason he needed to pull out and he didn't.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

How about the part where actually signed the fight and defeated Umar??

After much crying and UFC giving him an ultimatum, sure.

 

[Portland8242]

hindsight is 20/20, at the time merab was raging at reporters and fans who asked about umar and merab weirdly talked about fighting figgy even though he didn't beat anyone as good as sandhagen like Umar. Merab proved he wasn't scared of umar and is a better fighter but let's not act like he wasn't behaving weirdly prior to taking the fight

You can't see how the contrary come ups made it an agitating situation for Merab?

He literally had to clear out a division to get a title fight, and they still passed him up for journeymen scrub Chito Vera and made him wait for that.

Umar - goes from fighting unranked guys to getting a red carpet rolled out for him on a Sandhagen fight, with Dana confirming instantly after that Umar gets the next shot.

You and many others are really confusing Merab's words and statements for ducking.

 

[Portland8242]

After much crying and UFC giving him an ultimatum, sure.

The "ultimatum" doesn't mean shit in the end. Merab had a fucked up back and leg and had ample reason to push the fight back into ramadan territory (which we all know that dumb narrative would have really taken off then).

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

You can't see how the contrary come ups made it an agitating situation for Merab?
He literally had to clear out a division to get a title fight, and they still passed him up for journeymen scrub Chito Vera and made him wait for that.

Umar - goes from fighting unranked guys to getting a red carpet rolled out for him on a Sandhagen fight, with Dana confirming instantly after that Umar gets the next shot.

You and many others are really confusing Merab's words and statements for ducking.

I can see why Merab was mad about umar getting fast tracked, but I can also see why the fanbase thought he was ducking when he said he wants to fight Petr yan(someone he already 50-45) instead of umar, a new contender.

 

[Portland8242]

I can see why Merab was mad about umar getting fast tracked, but I can also see why the fanbase thought he was ducking when he said he wants to fight Petr yan(someone he already 50-45) instead of umar, a new contender.

If Merab was saying all this and still delaying the fight, there might actually be something to it.

Everything in reality says that Merab signed to fight Umar the second the contract came.

How the hell do you look through Merab's resume and think that ducking is anywhere in this guy's vocabulary.

 

[188912345]

UFC treated Merab a bit like they treated Aljo, when they forced Aljo to make quick turnaround to fight O'Malley, even though he needed more time to recover. It's a shame they use these tactics to try and get the "right" champ.

 

[Portland8242]

UFC treated Merab a bit like they treated Aljo, when they forced Aljo to make quick turnaround to fight O'Malley, even though he needed more time to recover. It's a shame they use these tactics to try and get the "right" champ.

Well get the right champ and keep it, that's for sure. Hence why they're also having Ankalaev fight on Ramadan.

 

[188912345]

Well get the right champ and keep it, that's for sure. Hence why they're also having Ankalaev fight on Ramadan.

Yes, but I did read that it's considered okay to delay fasting for 10 days if there's a valid reason. The fight is early March, so hopefully that won't be a factor.

 

[maximus__]

Well get the right champ and keep it, that's for sure. Hence why they're also having Ankalaev fight on Ramadan.

You can observe Ramadan at a different period or be exempt for multiple reasons.

Injuries are different and you can't just choose to be injured at a different time, or not be injured...

Merab was forced into a fight so Umar could do some intermittent/water fasting for a month. Ank is fighting in Ramadan because he most likely wants the extended camp and couldn't turn around as quick as Alex can.

Merab got stitched up with a fast turn around and still dominated Umar. Alex shouldn't have to sit out for half a year to make it so ANk can have an extended camp and do Ramadan.

 

[Portland8242]

You can observe Ramadan at a different period or be exempt for multiple reasons.

Injuries are different and you can't just choose to be injured at a different time, or not be injured...

Merab was forced into a fight so Umar could do some intermittent/water fasting for a month. Ank is fighting in Ramadan because he most likely wants the extended camp and couldn't turn around as quick as Alex can.

Merab got stitched up with a fast turn around and still dominated Umar. Alex shouldn't have to sit out for half a year to make it so ANk can have an extended camp and do Ramadan.

Pretty sure Ank was wanting the fight well before Ramadan but it's understandable if Alex had some things he needed to recover from given his torrent of activity the last 2 years.

Could actually just a be a case of unfortunate timing, but thankfully the fight is signed and ready to go either way. That was fucking ridiculous the way he got passed up for Khalil Rountree back in October.

 

[fortheo]

hindsight is 20/20, at the time merab was raging at reporters and fans who asked about umar and merab weirdly talked about fighting figgy even though he didn't beat anyone as good as sandhagen like Umar. Merab proved he wasn't scared of umar and is a better fighter but let's not act like he wasn't behaving weirdly prior to taking the fight

Many of us understood merab just fine from the beginning and didn't call him a duck. Merab saying he didn't think umar deserved it after one ranked win is not weird -- if anything the unusual thing is giving a guy a title shot after one ranked win. Preferring to fight other guys who put more work in isn't that weird either, as Merab wanted to do things moreso off of merit, the way Merab himself did it. Yet he got labeled a duck just because many people saw unproven umar as some boogeyman and assumed merab did too. People didn't even try to understand merab.

Asking to fight in March wasn't weird either considering it suited Merab's recovery timeline perfectly, but people just assumed a non Muslim that dives head first into ice must have known that ramadan was in march and that umar couldn't fight then, so it was considered an indirect duck from merab of course.

Asking to fight in February was acceptable too, but apparently team Khabib never wants to fight in Australia again. Somehow that was merab's problem, of course. Apparently if you don't fight umar exactly when umar wants, you're a duck.

Then to top it off, once merab finally signed the dumb contract to fight on the challengers rigid schedule, some fans still called merab a duck going so far as saying that merab only accepted because news of umar having an arm injury (an injury from months prior) came out.

The narrative of merab ducking was always stupid, even without hindsight.

 

[Portland8242]

Then to top it off, once merab finally signed the dumb contract to fight on the challenger's rigid schedule, some fans still called merab a duck going so far as saying that merab only accepted because news of umar having an arm injury (an injury from months prior) came out.

How could I have possibly forgotten this.

It really does just keep getting worse and worse for these Dagestani moron fanboys.

 

[Sean Chowdhury]

Many of us understood merab just fine from the beginning and didn't call him a duck. Merab saying he didn't think umar deserved it after one ranked win is not weird -- if anything the unusual thing is giving a guy a title shot after one ranked win. Preferring to fight other guys who put more work in isn't that weird either, as Merab wanted to do things moreso off of merit, the way Merab himself did it. Yet he got labeled a duck just because many people saw unproven umar as some boogeyman and assumed merab did too. People didn't even try to understand merab.

Asking to fight in March wasn't weird either considering it suited Merab's recovery timeline perfectly, but people just assumed a non Muslim that dives head first into ice must have known that umar couldn't fight in march, so it was considered an indirect duck from merab of course.

Asking to fight in February was acceptable too, but apparently team khabib never wants to fight in Australia again. Somehow that was merab's problem, of course -- Apparently if you don't fight umar exactly when umar wants, you're a duck.

Then to top it off, once merab finally signed the dumb contract to fight on the challengers rigid schedule, some fans still called merab a duck going so far as saying that merab only accepted because news of umar having an arm injury (an injury from months prior) came out.

The narrative of merab ducking as always stupid, even without hindsight.

That 1 ranked win was against a top 4 BW(Sandhangen) and trying to fight figgy who has no wins as good as that is a bit weird. Figgy is a flyweight moving up to BW and was coming off a win over a can like chito when Merab was considering fighting him instead of umar. Umar 49-46 or 50-45'd sandhagen, he was by far the most impressive contender and many considered him the toughest matchup so it's not hard to see why fans thought he was ducking.

 

[maximus__]

Pretty sure Ank was wanting the fight well before Ramadan but it's understandable if Alex had some things he needed to recover from given his torrent of activity the last 2 years.

Could actually just a be a case of unfortunate timing, but thankfully the fight is signed and ready to go either way. That was fucking ridiculous the way he got passed up for Khalil Rountree back in October.

I think that last fight was Ank's choice not Alex. My guess is Ank wanted Abu Dhabi and Alex wouldn't take it (and shouldn't).
Ank signed that fight before Alex and Khalil was made. That fight was added (Alex and Khalil) after and was in Salt Lake City at altitude and was too save a card.

Ank was very quiet about that fight. My guess is he got offered it and didn't want to take it due to the location and missing out on the Abu Dhabi card.
He made a smart decision knowing he would just get the next shot and a full camp.

 

[Luckyme]

Just because Merab won doesn't mean he wasn't ducking Umar. Even though he won, it was a tougher fight than O'Malley, Yan, etc.