You know how you can tell when somebody’s on the verge of extracting the prize from prizefighting? It’s when they begin to dominate headlines without ever throwing a punch.
Oh, Usman Nurmagomedov came close to doing just that in his first unofficial Octagon visit. Last weekend in Shanghai he hopped the fence like a thief in the night after Song Yadong sent his older brother Umar “to the land of wind and ghosts,” as my colleague Ben Fowlkes likes to say, loading up as if deliver an elbow as Song did his victory lap. Fortunately, he didn’t do it, yet that semi-action — which Usman himself said was much ado about nothing — helped him generate more headlines than Song.
A couple of weeks prior, out in Philadelphia, Usman was shown on the UFC 330 broadcast sitting cageside, the first indications that the UFC is biding its time until it can sign him. It might’ve been the most exciting thing about the event. The word being tossed around about the world’s top MMA free agent signing with the UFC has been “inevitable” ever since, which feels a little Calvinistic for a man of free will.
Everybody is talking about Usman Nurmagomedov. At just 28 and coming into his prime, he’s undefeated at 22-0 (1 NC), and he has the sacred name. In fact, he’s got two if you factor Kamaru into this. He has Bellator belts in the back of his closet somewhere, and PFL titles that he shows off at parties. Henry Cejudo said on a podcast this week that the PFL, Usman’s longtime promotion, would go belly-up if they let the last of the invincible Nurmagomedov’s walk.
“He leaves the PFL tomorrow, the PFL is finished,” Cejudo declared. “Straight up.”
Usman Nurmagomedov is about to get paid.
How will Usman factor into the UFC’s Fight Night in Paris this weekend? Let’s just say that he already has. He is the sweepstakes. When MMA Fighting asked the debutant Salahdine Parnasse if he might face Usman in his second UFC fight, the Frenchman’s eyes lit up.
“I think it’s a possibility for sure,” he said. “We’ll see.”
First thing’s first, though. Parnasse, who will have the entirety of France in full throat come Saturday, will have to get through Dan Hooker in the main event at the Accor Arena. He’s no slouch. Hooker feels like the oldest professional in the world, he’s been around so long, and the facts are facts. “The Hangman” finds himself in the grips of a two-fight skid, but he has never in his long career lost three in a row.
And, though he’s of a delicate complexion, he’s definitely not transparent enough to see right through, even if the temptation is there when it comes to Usman.
In fact, Hooker himself isn’t above such temptations. It was him who said he’d love to face Usman after he’s done licking Parnasse, which means both men will be swinging at proxies in Paris.
“Who’s the better welcoming party?” Hooker wanted to know when it comes to Usman’s UFC debut. “It’s the same thing with [Michael] Chandler, with this Parnasse guy. And it’ll be the same thing with Usman. No one else will take the fight. I saw someone, ‘Usman’s going to come out and fight Ilia Topuria.’ Get f***ked. Be serious. You think Ilia Topuria is going to take that risk of fighting an unranked non-UFC fighter? No one else wants to take the risk.”
Nobody wants to take the risk, yet everyone wants a piece. It’s inevitable.
Jim Miller said that Usman should be banned from cornering after his near misdeed in China with Song. The Octagon, as Miller explained, is a secure place for combatants, and Umar’s mad dash into that safe haven was a violation akin to building condos on sacred burial grounds. Daniel Cormier, who has shared many a sauna with the Nurmagomedovs, made sure to stand by his man.
“Usman did not elbow [Song], let’s stop making conspiracy theories out there people,” he said. “He did not elbow him. He did not attack Song Yadong.”
He didn’t, but the thing is everyone is talking about Usman. Everyone is thinking about him. That’s quite a turnabout from where Usman was in July, when he quietly fought out the last of his PFL contract against a cat named Archie Colgan on Long Island. Colgan, whom Usman knocked out in the first round, was incidental to the story; the real stuff happened after the fight, when MVP’s Jake Paul, who has acquired the PFL, got on the mic and offered to buy Usman a car after his next knockout.
A little buttering up never hurt anybody, especially if that next knockout happens with MVP. That’s why Paul was chatting up the man he called the “best in the f***ing world,” because he knows Nurmagomedov arms are about to get stretched in a tug-of-war.
Ninety days is what he’s working with to get something done.
“Honestly, I’m impressed,” Paul said of Nurmagomedov, amid a torrent of boos. “This is what makes him different. This is why we’re invested in his whole team, this is why we love this sport. This is why we’re backing him, and this is why we’re here tonight.”
When asked about his future, Usman — who’s already beat the Alexandr Shabilys and the Alfie Davises and the Paul Hugheses of the sub-UFC world — laid it down.
“We’ll see what’s going on,” he said. “This was my last fight, and MVP, they always trash talk Dana [White] a little bit, [that] he doesn’t pay. Now we’re going to see how they’re going to pay.”
When your name becomes a subplot with every UFC card, when your presence works subliminally into so many outcomes and your actions (as well as your restraints) become stories on their own, well … you’re in a good place to realize some big prizes.
And right now, there’s not a name being talked about more than Usman Nurmagomedov.
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