Usman Nurmagomedov has been one of the most dominant fighters in the PFL but much like his coach and cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov, there\u2019s always going to be certain stylistic matchups that makes it look like he\u2019s vulnerable.<\/p>\n
Throughout Khabib\u2019s illustrious career, the question always came up \u2018what happens if he faces a dominant wrestler?\u2019 The former UFC lightweight champion answered by putting together a perfect 29-0 record before retiring from the sport to focus on coaching.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s Usman\u2019s turn to provide his own answers as he takes on former college wrestler turned top lightweight contender Archie Colgan in his latest title defense. But don\u2019t expect the reigning PFL lightweight king to show any fear going up against another wrestler in his latest title defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a little short, uncomfortable fighter,\u201d Nurmagomedov said about Colgan when speaking to MMA Fighting. \u201cHe\u2019s wrestling very well but I\u2019m from Dagestsan. I can wrestle, I can grapple, I can do Muay Thai. I can do anything. Whatever he will compete with me, I am going to be better at. All respect for Archie and his team. He\u2019s not going to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to take me down. This is very hard to take me down, to be honest. I know how I have to fight with little short guys. I always love to fight with the little short guys. I have a longer reach. I can control everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the wrestling question is going to come up often leading into this main event clash, Nurmagomedov is quick to point out that he\u2019s not wrestling Colgan \u2014 they are fighting. Nurmagomedov is confident he can match Colgan anywhere on the feet or on the ground and if they want to settle the wrestling debate there\u2019s another way that can happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m going to grapple with him, too,\u201d Nurmagomedov said. \u201cI think I can take him down. My wrestling is not bad. We can do it like this. I\u2019m going to beat him or knock him down, I know I\u2019m going to beat this guy. For the people if they want to see who is better in the wrestling, we can do it in RAF.\u201d<\/p>\n
If anything, Nurmagomedov really hopes that Colgan can bring out the best in him because that\u2019s what he always wants when he\u2019s going out to defend his title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I have a big potential inside of me,\u201d Nurmagomedov said. \u201cI have very big ambitions. I just need somebody with who I can show this for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as the future goes, Nurmagomedov is undoubtedly going to be bombarded with questions about what comes next as he competes on Friday\u2019s PFL card on the final fight of his contract.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been heavy speculation that Nurmagomedov plans to leave PFL and sign with the UFC, especially now that his teammate and friend Islam Makhachev left the lightweight division to compete at welterweight instead.<\/p>\n
Nurmagomedov hasn\u2019t made any decisions yet and he\u2019s doing his absolute best to shut out all the noise until after his fight.<\/p>\n
He knows getting distracted is the perfect recipe for disaster if he\u2019s not putting his full focus on Colgan and the fight directly ahead of him.<\/p>\n
\u201cArchie, he\u2019s undefeated,\u201d Nurmagomedov said. \u201cYou can\u2019t stay like this for a long time [being undefeated] if you\u2019re not in the top five. That\u2019s why he\u2019s the No. 1 contender and of course, he wants to take everything what I have.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to look ahead and thinking about the future for my career. I have a fight. I have a name. We\u2019re going to fight. I have a fight and we have to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Usman Nurmagomedov has been one of the most dominant fighters in the PFL but much like his coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,5963,7613,85,14855],"class_list":["post-833542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-pfl","tag-pfl-news","tag-sports","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833542","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=833542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}