Usman
Nurmagomedov considers Alfie Davis
to be just another opponent in his way.
Usman will look to defend his lightweight title against Davis at
PFL Road to Dubai on Feb. 7 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai.
While Usman trains with Khabib
Nurmagomedov and Islam
Makhachev, Davis doesn’t think his wrestling is of their level.
However, Usman believes Davis will have no answer for his wrestling
in Dubai. Usman doesn’t consider Davis an elite striker and thinks
the Englishman only runs away from his opponents to avoid
wrestling. However, Usman warns Davis that the cage in Dubai is not
big enough to run around.
Nowhere to Run
“He’s not a good striker,” Nurmagomedov told MMAjunkie.com. “Who said he has good striking?
This guy beginning talking, but people don’t know nothing about him
because he just won one fight, lost three fights, began to win one,
two fights with former champions or old guys…He only has striking…
For example, I take him down, what is he going to do? What’s his
plan? Shabliy took him down, he didn’t get up. A lot of guys took
him down, and he just tried to hold the people. He tries to not let
them punch him, and he’s waiting for the round to finish, then he
begins to do some taekwondo or running inside the cage, but he
doesn’t understand that the cage in Dubai is a small cage. There is
no space for running.”
Usman (20-0) won the inaugural
Professional Fighters League lightweight title against Paul Hughes
and successfully defended it in a rematch last year. The undefeated
Dagestani has finished 14 of his 20 professional wins so far.
Meanwhile, Davis (20-5) is on a three-fight winning streak that won
him the PFL lightweight tournament last year.