Ali Abdelaziz offers insight into approach on Usman Nurmagomedov's free agency

PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov is the hottest free agent in MMA.

Nurmagomedov (22-0) completed the final fight of his contract when he knocked out Archie Colgan in the first-round of this past Friday’s PFL New York main event at UBS Arena in Elmont.

Ali Abdelaziz of Dominance MMA, who manages Nurmagomedov, said PFL opted not to make an offer before Nurmagomedov fought out his contract.

“Listen, the truth of the matter is PFL had an opportunity to sign him before the fight,” Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie. “And you know how much I love PFL – especially Mike Kogan is a friend of mine. He does a lot for the sport, and he gives so many opportunities. And I like the new guy, John (Martin). I like him. He seems like a good guy. He understands television. They’re great people. PFL always give an opportunity for people, and they don’t get enough credit.

“I put a number. It was a number on the table for them for Usman to extend the contract, but the number I thought was a fair number, and they choose not to. Usman took a risk. He could have went out there and lost. Archie could have beat him. He took a risk. He gambled on himself, and he won.

“Now, as a manager, I have to talk to people because they allow me to talk to people by not re-signing him. Of course, I’m going to talk with them first because they give him the opportunity, and I’m a very loyal guy, and I think Khabib feels the same way. I need to talk with them, but I’m going to talk to other people, too, and they know I’m going to talk to other people. And whatever makes sense for Usman, we’re going to do, you know? I know they merged with the other merger, but nothing changed because they merged. Everything’s still the same. PFL is still PFL. Maybe they’re going to get more exposure or more market, whatever it is. If it’s the good for the fighters, I’m supporting it, but it’s just going to be whatever is best for Usman, I’m going to do. But PFL did an amazing job with him.”

When asked about the UFC’s interest in Nurmagomedov, UFC CEO Dana White appeared to hint that it’s a done deal by smiling, but Abdelaziz said that’s not the case.

“In the next 90 days, they have an exclusive negotiation,” Abdelaziz said. “And after that, I’m going to talk to other people, and we’ll figure it out. It’s always good business with these guys. But in a way, we have friendly relationship. They can tell me go ahead and talk to other people to cut the time off. And I’ll talk to other people, but everything is on the up and up. I don’t hide things from people. There’s been many deals. Kayla (Harrison) kept re-signing, re-signing, re-signing.

“At one point, they said, ‘You know what? We wish Kayla the best of luck,’ and Kayla left. And this might happen. They might say, ‘We want to wish Usman the best of luck,’ and Usman can go somewhere else, right? But at the end of the day, right now it’s not like 100 percent he’s leaving going to the UFC. It doesn’t work like that. It has to be a lot of decisions. I have to negotiate, he has to like it, Khabib has to sign off on it, and this is how we work.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Ali Abdelaziz offers insight into approach on Usman Nurmagomedov’s free agency