Mario Bautista doesn’t see the same aura of dominance in Umar Nurmagomedov as his cousin Khabib.
Bautista (16-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) takes on former UFC title challenger Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) on Oct. 25 at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi. Nurmagomedov is coming off a bantamweight title loss to Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 311.
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Bautista, who looks to close in on a title shot with his ninth-straight win, thinks Nurmagomedov’s loss to Dvalishvili will impact his training camp.
“We definitely don’t think they’re invincible,” Bautista told MMA Junkie of Nurmagomedov’s team. “They’re great grapplers – they’re all good. Usman’s the champion over there, but it could be just Khabib is an outlier, and is just that great. Everyone expects the rest of them to just be like that, which isn’t the case. I think we have all the tools, all the guys to get ready for this, and who knows?
“I don’t expect this camp to be a good one for him because someone like Khabib is probably just going to straight push him, just because of what happened in the last fight. OK, you had that problem, we’re going to push you hard. So I don’t think it’s going to be a good camp for Umar.”
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Bautista would have liked his matchup with Nurmagomedov to be five rounds for multiple reasons.
“I think it was supposed to be that originally, and so I liked that,” Bautista said. “One, I get to test myself and have a five-round fight before we start getting into these big ones. We’re already there, but just to have that challenge, and just seeing what I seen when he fought Merab, I think it would just definitely work in my favor. But nonetheless, I’m still pretty confident.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Mario Bautista: Umar Nurmagomedov not like ‘outlier’ Khabib