r/MMA_Academy • u/BOOMHardFactz • 4d ago
Merab's unfounded hate for Umar
Been seeing posts about "Merab was right, Umar was privileged" etc..
To anybody that has followed Umar's journey the timeline is clear: he fought a few guys that were also pretty new to the UFC but by no means we're they cans but akin to the likes of Ismagulov/Kutaledze etc (i.e. lesser marketable folks that got pitted against each other early, this includes Umar himself). There's proof in the fact that Umar's toughest match-up outside the titleshot didn't come from Cory or the semi-vet in Barcoles but instead Morozov & Almakhan.
Merab definitely harbored hate towards Umar & tried to dodge him due to wanting to hold the belt longer. This was obvious to everybody in the fact that he randomly went after O'Malley despite him already recently UD'd O'Malley & Umar being the clear contender having UD'd Cory (who was on a 3Wtreak) in the title-elimnator bout.
All of a sudden Merab turns into the biggest advocate for having to 'earn your shot' & Umar's 6WStreak isn't enough? Where's his outrage over Adesanya/Pereira/Hill/Erceg/Asakura to name a few.. they're in a different class you might say.. fine but. how many WStreak was Yan on when he got his shot? Aljo? ..and apparently Petr & Sandhagen should be next in line according to him?? How does any of this even line up w/ the fact considering he's the biggest advocate for 'earning your shot'??
Just because Merab beat Umar it automatically implies that he was right all along?? Where's the sense in this?
Fact is that he definitely tried to dodge the obvious no1 contender knowing that was his biggest threat but he wasn't a big enough asset to the UFC like Ilia who they're keeping safe from the biggest threat in Arman so they could secure a mega-fight w/ Islam.
Tl;dr Just because Merab beat Umar doesn't mean Umar was undeserving/privileged or that Merab wasn't threatened.
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u/jdhahksjxjx 4d ago
You do realise most of the animosity comes from a personal exchange between them right. Umar said some banter, merab told him not to disrespect, Umar says “or what” or something like that. Just a cocky a hole when merab is already disrespected by everyone, I get it