Las Vegas — There is clearly no love lost between Mehemmedeli Osmanli and his TUF 34 finale opponent, Ilimbek Akylbek Uulu.
The pair had something of a heated rivalry on the show once it became apparent they were going to face off at some point in the bantamweight tournament, and that has carried over into their showdown at UFC Vegas 121 this Saturday.
While speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press during Wednesday’s media day. Osmanli (12-1) didn’t mince words when asked about where his opponent was dangerous.
“He has just wrestling. He can’t do nothing. He tries wrestling, I know that. Take me down. But I will beat him,” Osmanli predicted. “Now he will lose. I think he knows he will lose.”
Osmanli also made a rather shocking allegation about his time training at Syndicate MMA in preparation for the fight. “When I trained at Syndicate, his manager, his team [were] coming, his friends [were] coming, tried to look [at] my training, tried to look [at] my sparring. I don’t care. I don’t care, I know I will beat him so easy. Maybe first round KO, maybe submission, doesn’t matter, but I finish him, I know that.”
Osmanli believes that the Kyrgyzstani fighter attempted to injure him when the pair trained together on TUF 34. “I will break his face, because he tried to injure me. This is disrespect. And I need to break his face. I pay him for it.”
Osmanli also stated that he didn’t care if Ilimbek himself turned up to watch his training. Mainly because he doesn’t believe it will do him any good. “He can watch my training, what I can do. He can do that. Doesn’t matter for me, I will beat him.”
Asked whether Ilimbek was a dirty fighter, Osmanli put it another way. “He’s not dirty, he’s just sneaky. He wants to give injury. He’s just sneaky bitch.” Suggesting that Artem Bekhov and Christian Strong were better fighters on TUF 34, Osmanli admitted he was “shocked” to see Ilimbel in the final. “He don’t deserve this.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 121 media day appearance by TUF 34 finalist Mehemmedeli Osmanli above.