Not for impressionable: Khabib Nurmagomédov’s cousin debuted in the UFC and passed out his rival with a submission

Beyond the debate between retirement and continuity, there is no doubt that Khabib Nurmagomédov He is one of the kings of mixed martial arts worldwide. And apparently his cousin Umar wants to follow that successful family path: debuted in the UFC with a spectacular submission that passed out your rival for a few seconds Sergey Morozov.

The 24-year-old fighter made his 13th presentation as a professional of this discipline, but the first within the company whose highest authority is Dana White. His opponent lasted just from the rounds: Umar exhibited a fighting style very similar to that of his cousin and with 1 minute and 20 seconds remaining to the end of the assault, he managed to defeat Morozov with a sledgehammer. The images were shocking: the Kazakh fighter was knocked unconscious for a short time. “Sleep it!”, the official UFC account in Spanish wrote on social networks when sharing the video.

The Russian’s triumphant presentation was one of the eight preliminary fights of the UFC Fight Island 8 that this Wednesday in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) had as stellar event the confrontation between the Americans Michael Church and Neil Magny.

Umar signed a brilliant debut in the divisional of the bantamweight that currently has the Russian as champion Petr Yan and has Aljamain Sterling, Cory Sandhagen and Cody Garbrandt at the top of the ranking.

Regardless of whether this was his UFC debut, Nurmagomédov reached Abu Dhabi undefeated: counted 12 victorias previously with a last presentation in November 2019 with a submission success against Braian González at GFC 20. His stats, currently, They count 6 submissions and 1 KO. Morozov, his rival on duty, has 31 years and holds 16 wins and 3 losses.

It should be noted that this confrontation was to take place in October last year but Umar suffered an infection that left him hospitalized and forced him to postpone the fight. Previously, two other presentations that he was going to make under the UFC sphere had been canceled: before Hunter Azure the fight was suspended due to the restrictions that were imposed as a result of the pandemic and Nathaniel Wood decided not to face him after the death of his coach and uncle, Abdulmanap, Khabib’s father.

This time, The Eagle was in the corner of Umar and guided him in this premiere. In October of last year Khabib submitted to Justin Gaethje, stretched his undefeated to 29-0 and defended the lightweight title. On that same day, he assured that he would retire as a result of the death of his father, but the chance to see him inside the cage is still latent. “Khabib feels he has accomplished everything in the division. He told me, ‘I’ll watch every fight at UFC 257 and if any of the stars or co-stars do something spectacular, I will fight with one of them again”Explained President Dana White of the chances of a return.

Upon his arrival in the United Arab Emirates, Khabib experienced a particular scene: He was seconds away from running into Conor McGregor at the hotel, with whom in 2018 he starred in a scandalous event that ended with a punishment for both. The Irish Wrestler of The 32-year-old arrived on the island during the last hours for what will be his presentation on Saturday before Dustin Poirier which will serve as a rematch of the fight they carried out in 2014 and culminated in a KO victory for The Notorious.

McGregor, who arrived at the scene of the fight aboard a luxurious yacht, he was two years without fighting after that fight with Nurmagomédov, but in January 2020 he reappeared with a resounding KO in less than a minute before Donald Cowboy Cerrone.