Umar Nurmagomedov is the younger cousin of UFC Lightweight World Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and it seems that he’s following in his footsteps by maintaining an undefeated record in his promotional debut at UFC Fight Island 8. While he has a long way to go before he can match Khabib’s record of 29-0 at the time of his retirement back at UFC 254, Umar is only 24 years old and still has plenty of time ahead of him to work his way up the stacked Bantamweight division.
He started that climb up the ladder on January 20th when he improved his record to 13-0 with a second round submission win over Sergey Morozov. His opponent was also making his UFC debut, but came in with more experience at 16-4 and was riding a five-fight win-streak into the event. Umar Nurmagomedov put on an impressive display regardless and was winning the fight pretty comfortably on the judge’s scorecards after a successful first round. He showed the same relentless takedowns and superb forward pressure that his cousin built a hall-of-fame career on and took his Morozov’s back several times.
In the second round, it all proved too much for Morozov when he managed to secure back position and lock up a Rear-Naked Choke. While Morozov fought valiantly to escape, it all proved for nought as he eventually fell unconscious and the referee stepped in to call the fight off. It’s far too early to tell where Umar Nurmagomedov’s ceiling actually is, but he’s certainly proved that he belongs in the UFC and it looks as though he could prove to be trouble for several ranked fighters in the Bantamweight division. It’ll definitely be exciting to see if he can replicate Khabib’s success and eventually capture a UFC belt of his own.
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