Umar Nurmagomedov will return to the cage in the coming weeks, and a former Khabib team fighter has weighed in on this looming bantamweight bout. Nurmagomedov will take on Mario Bautista in a battle of ranked bantamweights with potential title implications attached to it at UFC 321 on October 25th.
Khalid Taha is the former Team Khabib member in question, with the ex-UFC vet preparing to fight Edgar Delgado Jimenez at Oktagon 75. That transpires on September 13th, and Taha appeared on Bowks Talking Bouts in the lead-up to the contest to discuss several subjects, including a past booking against one of the UFC 321 featured bantamweights.
Taha was lined up to face Mario Bautista at UFC Fight Night 201 in February 2022 before the former had to withdraw for reasons that were not disclosed. In that context, when touching upon the Mario Bautista versus Umar Nurmagomedov fight that was announced for UFC 321, Taha said,
“I trained a lot with team Khabib, but every time when I was there; first time was, Umar was in; he had a fight scheduled. It was like fight week, he fought. I guess first time when I was there, he fought at PFL. Second time when I was there, he was injured, and third time when I was there, he was in fight week and didn’t train.”
“So, I never had the opportunity to train with him, but like I see. Like I think he’s going to beat Mario Bautista. Mario Bautista is a very high skilled, all rounder. He has a crazy pace, goes always forward, can strike good, can grapple good, wrestle good, everything.”