Umar Nurmagomedov worried fans late last year when he admitted to suffering a brutal arm injury.
However, he has since retracted those claims and insists he is fully qualified to fight Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 311. He was scheduled to face Song Yadong in Tampa about a month ago, but when his rival was injured and the title fight came up, he opted to compete on January 18.
Current welterweight champion Belal Muhammad spent the last two weeks of training camp with Nurmagomedov and his teammate Islam Makhachev. And despite the injury rumours, he was impressed with the Russian's work.
Umar Nurmagomedov talked about injury problems in a recent interview
In an interview with ESPN MMA near the end of the year, Umar Nurmagomedov told a story about how he suffered a broken arm. The injury likely would have cost him his initially scheduled December fight with Song Yadong, but the extra few weeks appear to have allowed him to recover.
“After I was in Dagestan, I hit my arm,” he explained. “I'm going to show the doctor and I'll show them. They didn't do an MRI, but when did they check bone? An x-ray? They took x-rays and said, 'You're broken [your arm]'.
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
“You know, after that, after twenty days, I went again, even though I was broken, I was running. I still want to be in shape, you know. Even that time I try to run, I try to do shadow boxing, I try to be in shape. And after 20 days I go again, and it has become much better.
“Even my punches and other things, I wrestle, I do wrestling lessons. All I can do. Then I called my manager Ali [Abdelaziz] and I told him, 'Hey, I want to fight.' He said 'but we said we were hurt' and I said 'I told you take this fight'.
“My manager and my brother said, 'Are you crazy? You can't fight like that' and they said no. They asked again, they called me again: 'Do you want to fight with Merab?' Of course I already called Ali and said: let it happen. I want to fight in Ramadan, if Merab wants to fight in Ramadan I want to be active.”
Umar Nurmagomedov has since walked back an injury report
Fortunately for fight fans, Nurmagomedov made it clear in a more recent conversation with MMA Junkie that he is now much better and fully recovered for fight night. He is confident he will get a result, the first of two title fights that night.
“I don't train injured,” he told Mike Bohn when asked to clarify what he had said and the reports that followed in various media. I was already healthy when I started this training camp, and it wasn't a problem during training.
“Nothing. It was a perfect training camp. I'm good, I'm good. I'm perfect. Don't worry about that. My arms are ready to be smashed.”
Belal Muhammad provides insight into Umar Nurmagomedov's UFC 311 training
Despite all the concerns about his health during the fight, Nurmagomedov clearly impressed the welterweight champion with his work in sparring. He made no mention of injuries, but seemed to think the challenger will put on a big show.
“I was actually just in Vegas for the last two weeks, so I was able to be there and train and work and be in the room full of energy,” he told Submission Radio. “Umar is in his first title fight and I know how he feels because I was there.
“Khabib has three guys he's cornering, but they all look great, they all look hungry, the room is full of killers and I'm curious to see how they perform next week. I think all three will win.
“I think all three of them have clear, easy paths to victory, so I believe Khabib will start the year big… Umar is so good, there was nothing I saw that made me think anything was wrong. with him.
“He looked great, we were on his last day of sparring on Wednesday and he looked fantastic. I'm excited to watch him and see what he comes up with. I think he is the best bantamweight in the world and the match is favorable for Umar.”
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