Welterweight standout and Khabib Nurmagomedov teammate Saygid Izagakhmaev has signed on to make his Octagon debut at UFC Qatar.
The final quarter of the UFC’s 2025 schedule is packed with international events. The promotion kicked off a nine-week stretch of consecutive cards with UFC Perth in September before a return home to Las Vegas for UFC 320, and last weekend the Octagon touched down in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
UFC Vancouver goes down this Saturday before UFC 321 takes place in Abu Dhabi, UAE next weekend, and the world’s leading MMA promotion will head back to Las Vegas for three weeks to start November before the UFC makes its first trip to Qatar for a UFC Fight Night event on November 22.
UFC Qatar features a headlining lightweight bout between Arman Tsarukyan and Dan Hooker, and Izagakhmaev confirmed via Instagram that he’ll make his Octagon debut against Nicolas Dalby in Doha following an initial report from MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn.
Saygid Izagakhmaev will fight Nicolas Dalby at UFC Qatar. / (Instagram)
Currently on a five-fight win streak that dates back to his time with Eagle FC, Izagakhmaev has compiled an impressive 22-2 record since making his professional MMA debut in 2013. Following a 3-2 amateur run, the 31-year-old won 13-straight fights to begin his time as a pro fighter before he dropped a decision to Elias Silverio at Fight Night Global 87 in 2018.
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The Team Khabib-product most recently competed in MMA with ONE Championship and capped off a 3-0 run with a first-round knockout of MMA legend Shinya Aoki in late 2022. Izagakhmaev’s last recent combat sports outing saw him submit Khotam Boynazarov in just under two minutes during a grappling match at Karate Combat 54.
Welcoming Izagakhmaev to the Octagon at UFC Qatar will be longtime MMA veteran Dalby, who is currently on his second stint with the promotion after he initially went 1-3-1 during his first UFC run from 2015 to 2016.
Since rejoining the UFC in 2019, Dalby has gone 6-3 with one No Contest and put together a four-fight win streak that was capped off by a “Fight of the Night” winning upset against Gabriel Bonfim in 2023.
Nicolas Dalby (blue gloves) reacts after defeating Gabriel Bonfim (red gloves) during the UFC Fight Night at Ibirapuera Arena. / Jason da Silva-Imagn Images
“Danish Dynamite” is currently on a two-fight skid and was knocked out by Randy Brown in his most recent outing, although that fight also took home “Fight of the Night” honors to give Dalby his second post-fight bonus out of his last three bouts.
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The addition of Izagakhmaev vs. Dalby now gives UFC Qatar a packed slate of 15 fights, although there’s always the chance that the UFC may elect to move one of the scheduled bouts to one of its December shows with more than a month left to go until the Octagon touches down in Doha.
• Main Event: Arman Tsarukyan vs. Dan Hooker
• Co-Main Event: Belal Muhammad vs. Ian Machado Garry
• Serghei Spivac vs. Shamil Gaziev
• Jack Hermansson vs. Myktybek Orolbai
• Volkan Oezdemir vs. Alonzo Menifield
• Kyoji Horiguchi vs. Tagir Ulankebov
• Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev vs. Raffael Cerqueira
• Alex Perez vs. Asu Almabayev
• Felipe Lima vs. Daniel Marcos
• Marek Bujli vs. Denzel Freeman
• Bekzat Almakhan vs. Aleksandre Topuria
• Luke Riley vs. Bogdan Grad
• Ryan Loder vs. Ismail Naurdiev
• Muhammed Naimov vs. Mairon Santos
• Saygid Izagakhmaev vs. Nicolas Dalby
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