Fans were excited to see how Umar Nurmagomedov would do in his UFC debut. Not only did he live up to the hype by choking out his opponent, but he even got to celebrate with his cousin Khabib after the fact.
There is a lot of attention being paid to Umar’s debut, in large part because he is the cousin of lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. He was expected to debut much earlier than this in the UFC, but has had the fights delayed.
He finally got to make that walk to the Octagon on Wednesday, for UFC Fight Island 8. Here he faced off against former M-1 Global champion Sergey Morozov in a bantamweight clash.
Umar Nurmagomedov Chokes Sergey Morozov Out
The first round of Umar Nurmagomedov vs Sergey Morozov was quite competitive. Both men had solid moments, with Umar showing a diverse game of striking and grappling, and Sergey showed toughness and strong scrambling abilities.
Things went downhill quickly for Morozov at the start of the second round with Umar landing a beautiful head kick. After that, he was able to hang in there, but Umar was swarming in.
In the end, Umar Nurmagomedov was able to get Sergey Morozov’s back while standing, dragging him to the mat, sinking in a choke and putting his foe to sleep. This leaves Umar improving to an undefeated 13-0, with his first UFC win.
Khabib Celebrates With His Cousin
Working the corner for Umar was none other than Khabib Nurmagomedov. Following the fight, you could clearly see the excitement of the lightweight champion, as he celebrates with his cousin.
A cage side video was posted to YouTube, seeing Khabib show a ton of respect to Sergey Morozov and his team. He then congratulates and celebrates with Umar before Bruce Buffer reads the official decision.
Then when Sergey left the cage and Daniel Cormier interviews Umar in the cage, Khabib even did the translating. It was crazy to see Umar looking like the spitting image of his cousin, even donning the Papakha like Khabib.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzQR53u73Us&ab_channel=RTSportMMA
It seems that the UFC career of Umar Nurmagomedov is off to a good start. It will be exciting to watch his career unfold and see how long he can keep that undefeated record like his cousin Khabib.
