Umar Nurmagomedov wanted to make a championship statement at UFC 324, but he feels his opponent wasn’t cooperating.
Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nurmagomedov (20-1) racked up another victory with a workmanlike decision win over Deiveson Figueiredo (25-6-1). Though the win preserves Nurmagomedov’s top 5 ranking on the contender ladder, it’s unlikely to move the matchmakers much when it comes to who should challenge bantamweight champion Petr Yan next.
Nurmagomedov is putting the onus on Figueiredo for the uneventful fight.
“I was expecting it’s going to be more hard,” Nurmagomedov said in a post-fight scrum. “It was easier than my sparring partners. Even Manel Kape gave me more hard times in the last month and ‘Tiger’ Magomed Magomedov. I try to do my best, I try to fight like a killer, I try to go ahead, but when you’re opponent’s not engaging it’s a little hard to do something. Like, to show a competitive fight.”
As far as results go, Nurmagomedov has little reason to be disappointed as he swept the scorecards of the three-round fight. However, his path to a second championship match remains unclear as just 12 months ago, he suffered the first defeat of his pro career when he was outworked by Merab Dvalishvili in a title fight at UFC 311.
Making matters more confusing for Nurmagomedov is the fact that Figueiredo was saying all the right things in the lead-up to their fight, there was just no follow-through from what Nurmagomedov could see.
“I don’t know why he changed his plan,” Nurmagomedov said. “I think you should ask him. My plan was to go into the cage to try to do everything to take victory. Alhamdulillah, I did it and God make it easy for me and we’ll see what’s going to happen next. He’s a former champion, he’s a very tough guy. He’s not easy. I don’t know why he was not engaging, I really don’t know, but he’s a tough guy.
“When I take him down, when he get up, I feel he have power and everything, but I don’t know, maybe he’s scared to tire. Maybe he’s not in shape. I really don’t know. But we have what we have and we’ll see who’s going to be next.”
Nurmagomedov’s upcoming fight schedule will be affected by Ramadan, which is observed from mid-February to mid-March. He couldn’t say when he expects to fight again, but indicated he is not waiting for a particular opponent or opportunity.
When Nurmagomedov conducted his post-fight interview, it was before the UFC 324 co-main event between Sean O’Malley and Song Yadong, and he said he would be fine facing the winner of that fight (which turned out to be O’Malley) or another name in the rankings.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next exactly,” Nurmagomedov said. “Just one thing I know, I will ask [for a] fight. Doesn’t matter for the title, doesn’t matter for revenge. It’s going to be with one of the winners of this fight, [Song] or O’Malley, I don’t care. I really don’t care. I just want to be active.
“I just want to fight and I don’t want to be the guy who’s going to sit down waiting. ‘When are they going to give me a chance?’ No, I’m going to come to take the chance, fight again for the title, and I want to take that.”
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