Umar Nurmagomedov is ready to step out of Khabib’s shadow – and he’s making sure everyone knows it. The undefeated bantamweight joked that it was time to retire the nickname “Young Eagle”, playfully declaring himself the new face of the Nurmagomedov dynasty.
“No more Young Eagle – just Eagle now,” Umar said, poking fun at his cousin Khabib by calling him “old.” As Umar continues his rise in the UFC, it’s clear he’s embracing his own path while carrying on the family legacy. With Khabib now in full-time coach mode, Umar seems more than happy to take the reins.
Head coach Javier Mendez was asking birthday boy Umar what he made of Khabib saying that he was not ‘young’ eagle anymore. The 29-year-old replied saying,
“Coach it does not make sense if you look at it like that. He is the eagle right? And he is my older brother. If you look at it like that, I am the younger brother and younger eagle. Not age, it means like new generation. It has never been about age. He (Khabib) is old eagle.”
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With Khabib having been retired for five years now, Umar feels it is time to move on as he crowns himself the new eagle.
Well, nobody will be able to stop him if he adds UFC gold to his already impressive list of accomplishments. Umar takes on bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 311 later this month in the first PPV of the year.
However, it appears he is dealing with a serious injury ahead of his first shot at the UFC title.
Umar reveals serious injury ahead of title fight
Yes, Umar had broken his arm just weeks before. However, it seems to have recovered since and his camp is in full flow.
In a chat with ESPN MMA, Umar explained how the injury happened during training in Dagestan. Initially, he wasn’t sure what it was. But after feeling pain in his arm, he went for an X-ray, which confirmed the fracture.
Despite the setback, Umar stayed active, running and shadowboxing to keep his conditioning up. “I wanted to stay in shape, even with the injury,” he said.
By the time his arm started feeling better, Umar was ready to jump back in. When his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, reminded him they had already reported the injury, Umar insisted on taking the fight anyway. “I told him I still wanted the fight,” Umar recalled, brushing off concerns from his manager and brother.
After all that he has done to secure this title fight against Merab, it would have been a shame to have missed out due to a freak injury.
