Russian beats tough American on way to UFC title. Khabib glows with happiness!

After Khabib Nurmagomedov left the UFC, Dana White tried several times to bring the star champion back to the organization, but all to no avail. Now the head of the organization can celebrate, as he once again has fighter Nurmagomedov among his title contenders.

Umar defeated a very strong opponent and is now ready to become a champion.

An unexpected favourite

On the night of August 4, the UFC on ABC 7 tournament was held in Abu Dhabi, the main event of which was a bantamweight fight between American Cory Sandhagen and Russian Umar Nurmagomedov. The second number in the UFC rating in his weight class, Sandhagen, after losing to Petr Yan, was on a series of three victories. Khabib’s second cousin, who was only ranked 10th, had never lost to anyone, and managed to win five times in Dana White’s organization.

Bookmakers were not particularly impressed by the rating, judging by the fact that the Russian was perceived as a clear favorite with a win odds of 1.26 against his opponent’s 4.70. The fans in the UAE also mostly expected success for Umar, who was supported in the corner by his star relative Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The American tried to work as the first number at the start, but Umar did not let him feel at ease in the octagon and performed a takedown at the first opportunity. He did not manage to stay on the ground, while in the stand-up, Sandhagen caused a lot of problems for our fighter, having an advantage in height. Only at the end of the debut round, Nurmagomedov again dragged his opponent into the fight, where, however, he simply did not have time to achieve any significant success.

Umar Nurmagomedov and Cory Sandhagen / Photo: © Josh Hedges / Contributor / UFC / Gettyimages.ru

“Not one step back”

By the second round, Sandhagen had a cut on his face. The American could take credit for defending against passes, but he was not very successful in attacking actions. Nurmagomedov looked good in the stand-up, and by the end of the five-minute segment, he also added a couple of takedowns to his statistics. The third round was equal, with little success for either. After the equator of the fight, there was no talk of a clear advantage for one of the fighters.

To win, Umar needed to be more active, which Khabib shouted to his relative from the corner. The Russian was unable to fundamentally change the pattern of the fight, but continued to work well in the stand against a strong striker, which few believed before the fight. The American also understood that he was not guaranteed victory, and in the fifth round he even made a crazy and unsuccessful attempt to get to the feet.

“Not one step back,” shouted Khabib.

After that, Umar managed to really drag his opponent into the fight, where he drove Sandhagen around for two minutes, but still failed to finish him off. All that was left was to wait for the judges’ decision, which recorded Nurmagomedov’s 18th victory. A happy Khabib and an equally happy Islam Makhachev appeared in the octagon. The former and current UFC champions hugged everyone in the octagon. And perhaps the future champion was enjoying the victory. After his success in the fight with the number two ranked fighter, the Russian came as close as possible to a title fight.

Live broadcasts of UFC tournaments can be seen on the Match TV and Match! Fighter channels, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.