Umar Nurmagomedov may have earned the biggest win of his career over Cory Sandhagen at UFC Abu Dhabi, but that doesn’t mean he’s satisfied with his performance.
Despite winning at least four rounds on every scorecard, the undefeated bantamweight was still critical about some mistakes he made during the fight. In particular, Nurmagomedov pointed to Sandhagen’s ability to shut down his wrestling and grappling after finishing just five of 13 takedown attempts. While getting the victory was obviously most important, Nurmagomedov still expected better of himself.
“I’m not happy,” Nurmagomedov said at the UFC Abu Dhabi post-fight press conference. “It was a good performance on the striking, but if you’re talking about grappling and how I controlled him, it was not good.
“Because I [expected I would do that], I thought I would maul him on the ground, but he’s tough, he’s good. Cory’s too good and he has hard kicks. He’s a tough man. I think he has more experience than me in the UFC cage, but I won. But I’m happy, I won.”
While Nurmagomedov may not have found as much success with his grappling as he’s become accustomed to, he still kept Sandhagen guessing across all five rounds, which was still a weapon even if the takedowns weren’t happening.
The bantamweight fight played out in back-and-forth fashion, particularly through the first three rounds, but it was during those final 10 minutes that Nurmagomedov really took over.
It turns out that happened at least partially thanks to the advice Nurmagomedov received from his cousin and head coach Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was working his corner for the fight.
“After the third round, Khabib cornered me and he [said], ‘Now is the beginning of [the championship] rounds and you have to be strong, don’t show weakness,’” Nurmagomedov said. “[Khabib said,] ‘You have to be strong. Go ahead and take this victory, press him, push him, don’t lose any second.’”
Nurmagomedov took that advice to heart as he pressed the pace on Sandhagen and imposed his will during those final two rounds.
As much as the entire fight didn’t leave him feeling the best, the 28-year-old bantamweight contender can’t deny that his conditioning was a real asset in his first UFC main event.
“It’s a little bit difficult but I didn’t [get] tired how he said [I would],” Nurmagomedov said. “You remember how Cory said I will get tired, he will choke me, and at the end of the rounds, nothing happening. I think I was more fresh than him.”
With the win over Sandhagen, Nurmagomedov almost certainly cements himself as the No. 1 contender in the bantamweight division as the title goes up for grabs at UFC 306 when reigning champion Sean O’Malley takes on Merab Dvalishvili in the main event.
In the past, Nurmagomedov stated that he sees the matchup as an even fight, and he’s not changing his opinion now, especially knowing he really just wants the winner.
“I’m planning on going to the fight, but I don’t want to name one guy or the other guy because I don’t want the other guy to think I’m trying to avoid fighting him,” Nurmagomedov said. “So of course, I’d be very happy to fight both of them. The goal is to fight the winner.”
While Nurmagomedov anticipates a title shot for his next fight, he’s not quite as certain when asked about possibly making a quick turnaround to serve as the backup for O’Malley vs. Dvalishvili on Sept. 14.
To add to that, he highly doubts Dvalishvili would just abandon his title shot in a worst-case scenario if O’Malley is unable to compete at UFC 306.
“It’s only a month away so it really depends on my health,” Nurmagomedov said. “Out of my 17 fights, I’ve never gotten as much damage as I got during this fight. It’s really kind of soon but it depends on the health. I do not think any of them are going to fall out.
“This is a fight that Merab’s been waiting for, for a really long time, so even if it does happen that O’Malley pulls out, I think Merab is just going to wait for his title shot and wait for O’Malley to get better and fight him.”
