Why Merab shouldn't have ducked Umar

[MarioLemieux]

He would have had a better chance against Umar now than later Umar is just getting better and he also showed mental weakness because both guys now know Merab is avoiding the smoke and giving Umar the psychological edge when they clash.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

You can't expect someone to get a shot after beating #2! They have to beat #8 after and then they're ready.

 

[MarioLemieux]

Rattled.

 

[filthybliss]

This Song Yadong match up is extremely bizarre. They mighta as well bench Umar to fight the winner between Figgy or Yan. I mean even Omalley seems like an ok fight to make.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

I think he'd rather hope Umar loses or has a mid-performance and he'll get the winner of Figgy/Yan.

He already beat Yan (though Yan injured his knee severely in the first 10 seconds of the fight, which dictated a lot of how things went) and stylistically based on Moreno out-wrestling and grapple-fucking Figgy in a lot of their fights it must give Merab confidence that it's a very winnable style match-up for him.

There is always Suga coming back after that and they might not want to risk him losing in his comeback fight to someone like Yan in a 5-rounder, so they might just give him the title shot when he comes back immediately.

So hypothetically Merab could get two title defenses in (if he wins both obviously lol) before having to fight Umar in like the beginning of 2026. Better to be champ and rake in the fame money for 1.5 years then risk losing it all 4-5 months after finally getting your shot and winning the belt.

A lot of the BW division is in flux at the moment though, we'll see what happens with Umar/Song and Yan/Figgy and that will determine a lot of the match-ups we see in 2025 at the top of the pecking order.

 

[LeBron]

Honestly I never took Merab for a pussy, I’m pretty surprised. Thought he was about that life.

 

[Substance Abuse]

They'll eventually fight. I don't really care when. Props to Umar for fighting down the rankings and giving Song a shot.

 

[TheMMAnalyst]

This Song Yadong match up is extremely bizarre. They mighta as well bench Umar to fight the winner between Figgy or Yan. I mean even Omalley seems like an ok fight to make.

Umar wants a fight to stay active/busy/confident before he takes March off for Ramadan, they gave him the best stylistic match-up in the top 10 after Chito, who is taking a lot of time off after losing to Suga/Figgy back-to-back.

Suga is getting/got hip surgery, he'll be out until Summer of 2025, which means if Figgy wins he'll get the title shot 100% after Umar (unless Umar lays a stinker/loses against Song, then possibly Figgy leap-frogs him).

I think if Yan wins they'll look to make a 5-rounder vs. Suga for his comeback fight, at least I hope they do, I really want to see that fight plus a rematch vs. Merab before Yan declines physically any more.

 

[Oscar Madison]

Umar got his Title Shot ticket punched.

Now he's gonna go back and fight -- so he has a better Job History on his Resume.

 

[MarioLemieux]

Umar got his Title Shot ticket punched.

Now he's gonna go back and fight -- so he has a better Job History on his Resume.

Merab wants to fight O'Malley again, which is the dumbest possible next fight for fans, even for O'Malley because he'll just be tooled again by the same guy and it will be the end of his career legacy. Lame duck is lame.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

They'll eventually fight. I don't really care when. Props to Umar for fighting down the rankings and giving Song a shot.

Props to Song, too, bc he really needed a rebound fight, after the Yan loss, and he took about as hard a fight as he could instead.

 

[svmr_db]

Rattled.

 

[svmr_db]

Props to Song, too, bc he really needed a rebound fight, after the Yan loss, and he took about as hard a fight as he could instead.

Not much risk at all for Song. Maybe he will win a round or drop Umar, in Dana's book that will be enough to have his ranking increased in a loss lol.

 

[Bobby Boulders]

Not much risk at all for Song. Maybe he will win a round or drop Umar, in Dana's book that will be enough to have his ranking increased in a loss lol.

Dana gonna be moving up all the losers from now on. No more squatting and biding your time, dudes behind you that get KTFO will pass you up

 

[Kenny Powerth]

Mad props to Umar for staying active

I wish he was fighting Figgy though

 

[ArtardFiesta]

merab wants an easy fight to cash in. he knows hte cash cow is over after umar beats him.

So merab took the one fight ufc couldn't pass up a rematch against omalley. afterwards watch him try to fight aldo/figgy.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

Not much risk at all for Song. Maybe he will win a round or drop Umar, in Dana's book that will be enough to have his ranking increased in a loss lol.

He'll have to get KO'd if he wants to go up in the rankings. I'm using Dana logic here.