Usman Nurmagomedov is the hottest free agent in MMA, and if he ends up joining the UFC, his coach thinks it won’t be long before he’s holding gold.
This past weekend, Nurmagomedov successfully defended his PFL lightweight title, stopping Archie Colgan with strikes in the first round. The win moved Nurmagomedov to 22-0 (1 no-contest) in his MMA career, and completed his current contract with the PFL. The 28-year-old champion is now eligible to sign with any promotion he wants, with the UFC and the PFL appearing to be the obvious frontrunners for his services. But whoever he signs with, Nurmagomedov’s coach, Javier Mendez, believes that organization is getting the best lightweight in the world.
“For me, I’m being biased, of course. He’s my guy. Since Islam went up to welterweight, I consider Usman the best lightweight in the world,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “I’ve always felt that, and I’m willing to prove that with him. And he’s willing to prove it! So, if we get those opportunities, we’re willing to jump on them. But let’s see what happens. Money talks, so let’s see who’s going to come up with the kind of money that he wants, or who’s going to come up with the opportunities that he wants.”
“The kid, the ceiling is — his potential is so great. I’ve said it many times: If you look at my interviews from years back, he’s the most talented out of anybody I’ve ever trained. And I don’t take any of what I said back. I’m sticking to it, 100 percent what I said, and he’s proving me right by what he’s doing.”
Following his win on Friday, Nurmagomedov said he was undecided on his free agency, essentially telling reporters that “money talks.” Nevertheless, fans seem to believe Nurmagomedov is soon to join his teammate Islam Makhachev in the UFC, where he will immediately become a player in the lightweight title picture. And if that does come to pass, Mendez wants to jump right into the deep end.
“If he does jump in, I’m looking at the top two dogs, if he jumps in,” Mendez said. “Someone like [Arman] Tsarukyan, someone like [Ilia] Topuria, those are the two that I look at as the dream fights. Not dream fights, but the fights to want to have. But how it’s going to work if we do jump over … they’re probably going to give us someone like a Paddy [Pimblett]. Someone of that stature, which is fine, too. Or maybe Max Holloway. Who knows? But it’s going to be somebody in the top five.”
But if he had his druthers, Mendez would pick a man his team has some history with: Ilia Topuria.
For much of the past two years, Topuria chased a fight with Islam Makhachev, until Justin Gaethje ruined those plans by upsetting Topuria at UFC White House. Still, Mendez has always rated Topuria highly, and thinks that would be the most challenging fight for Usman Nurmagomedov to take.
“He matches up extremely well with every one of those guys,” Mendez said. “The guy that’s going to be the toughest puzzle, in my opinion, is Topuria. He’s going to be the toughest puzzle, but we’ll get him solved, too. But he’s the toughest puzzle, and he’s the one I would have the most respect going up against. Khabib’s opinion may be different; other coaches that train Usman might have different opinions, but my opinion is [that] our toughest task we have to work on is Ilia. And we would do it. I know we would do it, but he is definitely, by far, our toughest challenge.”
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Upset. Charles Oliveira: Ian Machado Garry has a ‘very good chance’ of beating Islam Makhachev at UFC 330.
Election. UFC Hall of Famer B.J. Penn running for local office in Hawaii amid numerous other legal issues.
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