Umar
Nurmagomedov wants to settle the score with Cory
Sandhagen after defeating Bekzat
Almakhan at
UFC Fight Night 238.
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Nurmagomedov survived an early scare after getting dropped in the
first round and rallied to score a thoroughly dominant unanimous
decision win over the Kazakh debutant, who was riding an
eight-fight winning streak with seven finishes. Nurmagomedov
acknowledged his opponent’s toughness and isn’t fretting over the
lack of a finish.
“When I’m going inside cage it was father plan: we gonna take him
down, try to finish him but finish not work,” Nurmagomedov said at
Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “He didn’t let [it happen].
But it’s OK.”
Nurmagomedov subsequently called out Sandhagen, who he was
scheduled to face this past July before pulling out due to a
shoulder injury. The undefeated Russian also addressed pullout
accusations, noting that his health has only been responsible for
two matchups falling through, one of which he already ran back.
“Everybody talk about my pullouts…In my life, I pull out, for me,
because of health two times,” Nurmagomedov said. “First time I was
sick, my face was very big and I didn’t sleep all night. I was very
sick, I didn’t remember [a] worse time than that in my life. I
didn’t fight but that fight was with Sergey
Morozov and later I fight with him. Second time because of me,
because of my [health], I pull out because of my shoulder. I
injured my shoulder, I did surgery and I will fight with Cory
Sandhagen again I hope. It’s two times when I pull out because
of me. Other when [coronavirus] come, when my uncle [Abdulmanap
Nurmagomedov] pass way, when opponents pull out, they are gonna
count everything and say Umar pull out eight times. No, it’s not
true.
“I just wanna fight. Cory
Sandhagen, he talk about me, International Fight Day [Week] he
wanna fight, let’s go.”