Umar Nurmagomedov concerned fans towards the end of last year when he admitted to having suffered a brutal injury to his arm.
However, he has since walked back those claims and insists he is well able to fight at UFC 311 against Merab Dvalishvili. He had been due to take on Song Yadong in Tampa about a month ago, but when his rival was injured and the title fight came up, he opted to compete on January 18.
Current welterweight champion Belal Muhammad spent the final two weeks of training camp with Nurmagomedov and his teammate Islam Makhachev. And he was impressed with the Russian’s work despite the injury rumors.
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Umar Nurmagomedov opened up about injury struggles in recent interview
In an interview with ESPN MMA towards the end of the year, Umar Nurmagomedov told a story of how he suffered a broken arm. The injury likely would have cost him his initially planned December fight with Song Yadong, but the extra few weeks appear to have allowed him to recover.
“After I was in Dagestan, I punch my arm,” He explained. “I go to show the doctor and I show them. They did, like, not an MRI but when they check bone? An X-Ray? They did X-ray and they said, ‘You broke [your arm]’.
“You know after that, after 20 days I go again even when I was broken, I was running. I want to still be in shape, you know. Even that time I try run, try to do shadow boxing, try to be in shape. And after 20 days I go again, and it’s become much better.
“Even my punches and other things, I do grapple, I do wrestling class. Everything I can do. Then I called my manager Ali [Abdelaziz] and I said to him ‘hey, I want to fight’. He said ‘but we said we’re injured’ and I said ‘I told you, take this fight’.
“My manager and my brother said ‘are you crazy? You can’t fight like that’ and they said no. They asked again, they called me again ‘will you fight with Merab?’ Of course, I already called with Ali and said make it happen. I want to fight in Ramadan, if Merab wants to fight in Ramadan I want to be active.”
Umar Nurmagomedov has since walked back injury message
Luckily for fight fans, in a more recent chat with MMA Junkie, Nurmagomedov clarified that he is now much better and has fully recovered for fight night. He is confident of getting a result, which be the first of two title fights on the night.
“I am not training injured,” he told Mike Bohn when asked to clarify what he had said and the reports that followed in carious media outlets. I was already healthy when I began this training camp, and it was not some trouble when trained.
“Nothing. It was perfect training camp. I’m good, I’m good. I’m perfect. Don’t worry about that. My arms ready to smash.”
Belal Muhammad gives insight into Umar Nurmagomedov’s UFC 311 training
Despite all of the concerns around his health for the fight, Nurmagomedov clearly impressed the welterweight champion with his work during sparring. He didn’t mention any injuries, but seemed to think the challenger is going to put on a major showcase.
“I was actually just in Vegas for the last two weeks so I could be able to be there and train and work and be in the room full of energy,” he told Submission Radio. “Umar is in his first title fight and I know how he feels because I was just there.
“Khabib has three guys that he’s cornering but they all look great, they all look hungry, the room is full of killers and I’m excited to see how they perform next week. I do think that all three of them are going to win.
“I think all three of them have clear, easy paths to victory so I believe that Khabib is going to start the year off big… Umar is so good, there was nothing really that I saw at all that made me think there was something wrong with him.
“He looked great, we were there his last sparring day on Wednesday and he looked fantastic. I’m excited to watch him and see what he comes up with, I do think that he’s the best bantamweight in the world and the matchup is a favorable one for Umar.”
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