Umar Nurmagomedov is already waiting for one other championship alternative.
The beforehand undefeated fighter fell brief in Saturday’s UFC 311 co-main occasion, dropping a unanimous resolution to bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili in a dramatic five-round contest. Although Nurmagomedov had his moments, the inexhaustible Dvalishvili outlasted the challenger en path to his first title protection and Nurmagomedov’s first loss.
Within the aftermath of the defeat, Nurmagomedov posted a press release to social media, during which he wrote he has “no excuses” and vowed to “turn out to be the champion” (auto-translation from Russian through Instagram.)
“There aren’t any excuses,” Nurmagomedov wrote. “InshaAllah, I’ll turn out to be the champion. The remaining is just not necessary. Reward Allah in any scenario.
“And I don’t assume I’ve misplaced this battle if even the entire world will persuade me in any other case. Take care of the accidents and get again on monitor.”
In his post-fight interview instantly following the loss, Nurmagomedov instructed commentator Joe Rogan he broke his left hand within the opening spherical and that he nonetheless felt he’d completed sufficient to win the battle. Nurmagomedov’s administration staff later despatched out a photograph of the fighter’s hand to again up the declare.
Nurmagomedov additionally instructed Rogan he deliberate to re-watch the battle, nevertheless it’s unclear if he did so earlier than placing out his social media assertion.
No matter how Nurmagomedov and his staff noticed it, the official end result was a unanimous resolution win for Dvalishvili. Nurmagomedov dropped to 6-1 within the UFC and heads into his subsequent coaching camp to determine find out how to rebound from a loss for the primary time.
