{"id":448051,"date":"2026-01-30T20:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448051\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T20:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T20:10:08","slug":"khabib-nurmagomedov-has-an-idea-of-who-umars-next-ufc-opponent-could-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/448051\/","title":{"rendered":"Khabib Nurmagomedov has an idea of who Umar&#8217;s next UFC opponent could be"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov thinks it isn\u2019t hard to see who could be next for Umar Nurmagomedov.<\/p>\n<p>Umar recently competed on the UFC 324 card. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/umar-nurmagomedov\/ufc-324-results-umar-nurmagomedov-defeats-deiveson-figueiredo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">defeated<\/a> former UFC Flyweight Champion Deiveson Figueiredo. Despite the victory, Umar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ufc\/umar-nurmagomedov-explains-frustration-with-ufc-324-win-over-deiveson-figueiredo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expressed frustration<\/a> with the lack of activity from his opponent.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to MMA Arena, Khabib said Umar\u2019s next opponent will depend on who gets the next crack at Petr Yan\u2019s UFC Bantamweight Championship (via <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/01\/30\/khabib-two-options-umar-nurmagomedov-next-ufc-fight\/88428081007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MMAJunkie<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was very important for us to become this top four: O\u2019Malley, Merab, Yan, and Umar,\u201d Nurmagomedov told MMA Arena (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RedCorner_MMA\/status\/2017098020261941304?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Red Corner MMA<\/a>). \u201cIt was very important to make it clear there are only four guys on top right now and the UFC knows this. If Yan is going to fight against Merab, Umar will fight against Sean O\u2019Malley. If they choose O\u2019Malley, Umar is going to fight Merab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>UFC has yet to reveal who is next for a shot at the 135-pound gold. Merab Dvalishvili is a popular choice among fans given the memorable run he had with the championship. Sean O\u2019Malley has said that if UFC books the title rematch, then he will wait for the winner.<\/p>\n<p>Some are skeptical of O\u2019Malley being able to wait out another title fight. That\u2019s why Khabib mentioned the possibility of \u201cSuga\u201d facing Umar. It would be a fresh matchup in the bantamweight division and one that could determine a No. 1 contender.<\/p>\n<p>Umar has just one pro MMA loss in his fighting career. The defeat was against Dvalishvili back in Jan. 2025. Umar was competitive in the fight, but he ultimately dropped a unanimous decision and has been fighting his way back to title contention since. Just how soon Umar can get another title opportunity remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>Who do you think Umar Nurmagomedov will ultimately face next? Tell us in the comment section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov thinks it isn\u2019t hard to see who could be next for Umar&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-448051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-mma","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}