Usman Nurmagomedov says the PFL tried to keep him with serious money, but the unbeaten lightweight is not biting at the first big number. The update adds a fresh twist to a career arc that already had Nurmagomedov defending Bellator gold against Alexander Shabliy before the PFL era swallowed Bellator’s roster whole.
Nurmagomedov spoke with Sport24 in a new interview posted Thursday, with the discussion hitting his PFL status, Umar Nurmagomedov’s UFC Shanghai week, and the nonstop UFC speculation around him. The key contract piece is simple enough. PFL talks are still alive, but the offer he already rejected was not small-change couch money.
“Negotiations with the PFL are still ongoing. 90 days have to pass. After that, we’ll see,” Nurmagomedov said in translated comments.
“But I have turned down $2 million. When we made our request for a new contract, the numbers were different. Higher than $2 million,” he continued.
Watch the full Sport24 interview below:
Nurmagomedov’s Price Just Made The Waiting Game Louder
Asked if he is now waiting to see what PFL ultimately offers, Nurmagomedov said the negotiating work belongs to his manager, Ali Abdelaziz.
“Well, that is already Ali Abdelaziz’s work. To be honest, I don’t get involved there. I am waiting until he comes to me with an offer and, in general, to hear what vision the PFL has for me. He is conducting negotiations.”
That 90-day window is the whole traffic jam. Nurmagomedov closed out his latest run with the kind of leverage every fighter wants, then immediately became one of the more interesting contract plays in the sport. He is 28, unbeaten, and still feels like the kind of lightweight who makes matchmakers start moving chairs around the room.
The PFL side has a clear reason to keep pushing. Nurmagomedov is one of the promotion’s cleanest high-end MMA assets, especially after the PFL bought Bellator and started trying to turn a loaded but messy roster into a real long-term machine. Losing him after a contract-closing knockout would be a brutal bit of business, even if the exclusive negotiating period means nobody else can officially jump the line yet.
The UFC angle is obvious because Nurmagomedov sits in the same family and training orbit as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, and Umar Nurmagomedov. That does not automatically make the deal easy. It makes it expensive. Khabib already framed him as the next elite lightweight in the room when he called Usman the best lightweight after Islam Makhachev, and this new number shows why the market has teeth.
Nurmagomedov did not announce his next move, and he did not say the UFC is the guaranteed landing spot. He did, however, make clear that a $2 million PFL offer was not enough to end the drama. In fight-business terms, that is not a whisper. That is the price tag getting shoved across the table.
