{"id":873903,"date":"2026-08-30T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873903\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T14:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:00:10","slug":"usman-nurmagomedov-denies-trying-to-elbow-song-yadong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/873903\/","title":{"rendered":"Usman Nurmagomedov Denies Trying To Elbow Song Yadong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight contender Song Yadong scored the biggest win of his career when he knocked out former 135-pound title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov in the main event of UFC Shanghai<\/a> yesterday (Sat., Aug. 29, 2026) inside SPD Bank Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

While the second-round upset was incredible, what happened immediately afterward stole some of the headlines.<\/p>\n

Seconds after Song flatlined Nurmagomedov, he began sprinting around the Octagon in celebration. At the same time, Umar\u2019s brother and reigning PFL Lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov leaped over the fence, apparently attempting to check on his unconscious brother.<\/p>\n

The two suddenly found themselves on a collision course.<\/p>\n

Usman shoved Song away and appeared to begin throwing a backward elbow as the celebrating fighter ran behind him. However, Usman pulled the strike back before it connected, and the incident did not escalate any further.<\/p>\n

The internet quickly exploded with accusations and heavy criticism.<\/p>\n

Hours after the incident, Usman issued a lengthy statement on social media denying that he intended to strike Song.
\u201cOnly what has been ordained for us will befall us,\u201d Usman wrote on Instagram. \u201cIn any situation \u2014 Alhamdulillah. People are making such a huge tragedy out of this; they really ought to calm down. There are far worse things. You don\u2019t need to think long \u2014 just look at what is happening in the world.\u201d
\u201cAnd as for the claim that I supposedly wanted to hit his opponent … if I had wanted to, I would have hit him. You spiteful, petty and envious people \u2014 your problem is that you have never known, nor will you ever know, family love and understanding. If you don\u2019t know what a brother means to a brother, then it is not me you should pity, but yourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unknown if Usman will be punished for jumping the cage and almost throwing an elbow at Yadong, and if he does, it will come from the UFC itself as China does not have government-sanctioned athletic commissions or combat sports regulators like those in the United States or other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

If he does not reach a new agreement with PFL, a potential move to UFC could become one of the biggest free-agent stories in MMA.<\/p>\n

After Saturday\u2019s near-miss with Song, however, Usman\u2019s courtship with UFC is already off to a chaotic start.<\/p>\n

For complete UFC Shanghai results, coverage, and highlights click HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight contender Song Yadong scored the biggest win of his career when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146,6656,355513],"class_list":["post-873903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-results","tag-ufc-mma-social-media-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873903","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=873903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}