Nurmagomedov fought Archie Colgan at PFL New York <\/a>in the main event. He put on a spectacular performance and knocked out Colgan under four minutes to retain his lightweight belt.\u00a0<\/p>\nHowever, this win also marked the end of Nurmagomedov\u2019s current PFL contract, and he is now the biggest free agent in the sport. Now his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, has revealed that the PFL had an opportunity to secure the Dagestani star’s future before the fight but declined to do so.<\/p>\n
Ali Abdelaziz Says PFL Declined to Extend Usman Nurmagomedov’s contract<\/p>\n
In his recent appearance on MMA Junkie, Abdelaziz praised PFL for giving deserving fighters opportunities and revealed that PFL decided against accepting the offer, allowing Nurmagomedov to test free agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe truth of the matter is, the PFL had the opportunity to sign him before the fight, and you know how much I love the PFL. PFL has always given opportunities, and they don\u2019t get enough credit.\u201d Abdelaziz said. \u201cI put a number on the table for them for Usman to extend his contract, but the number, I thought was a fair number, but they chose not to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdelaziz also praised Nurmagomedov for betting on himself by entering the final fight of his deal without a new contract in place. The manager admitted it was a risk but believes it ultimately paid off.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsman took a risk, he could\u2019ve went out there and lost\u2026 He took a risk and gambled on himself and he win. Now as a manager I have to talk to (other) people. They allow me to do that by not re-signing him,\u201d Abdelaziz continued.<\/p>\n
PFL Still Holds Exclusive Negotiating Rights with Usman Nurmagomedov<\/p>\n
Although speculation surrounding a potential UFC move has intensified after questions were asked of Dana White about signing Nurmagomedov, and the CEO had the biggest smile, Abdelaziz clarified that the PFL still holds exclusive negotiating rights for a limited period.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the current agreement, the promotion has a 90-day exclusive negotiation window before Nurmagomedov is free to negotiate with other organizations. That said, Abdelaziz noted the timeline could be shortened if the PFL allows him to speak with other promotions sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have an exclusive negotiation but after that we\u2019ll talk to other people and figure it out\u2026 They could say to go and talk to other people and cut the time off.\u201d Abdeleziz added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Check out Ali Abdeleziz\u2019s comments below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
All signs point to Nurmagomedov’s potential signing with the UFC.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ali Abdelaziz revealed why Usman Nurmagomedov entered free agency, claiming the PFL declined to extend the undefeated champion’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":846652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[60894,93268,49,48,641,10453,638,1863,82,640,44010],"class_list":["post-846651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ali-abdelaziz","tag-archie-colgan","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-lightweight","tag-mma","tag-pfl","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-usman-nurmagomedov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=846651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/846651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=846651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=846651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=846651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}