Coach John Wood paid tribute to Merab Dvalishvili after his man bounced back from a difficult fight camp to retain his bantamweight title at UFC 311.

In his first statement after exiting the octagon following Dvalishvili’s (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) unanimous decision win to retain the bantamweight title on Saturday, Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) said he has “no excuses” for failing to get his hand raised for the first time in his career.

Umar Nurmagomedov was the perfect fighter in the early rounds against UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili. While fatigue did not make a coward of Nurmagomedov, it certainly caused his downfall at UFC 311 on Saturday as Dvalishvili outpointed his foe en route to a unanimous decision win (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) to retain the bantamweight title.