‘Six Months’: Umar Nurmagomedov Reveals Comeback Plans After First Loss in Khabib’s Family

It’s been a tough few weeks for Umar Nurmagomedov. The highly touted bantamweight prospect suffered the first loss of his professional career at UFC 311, marking an unfortunate milestone as the first fighter from his family to taste defeat in the octagon. But true to the warrior spirit of the Nurmagomedov clan, he’s already planning his comeback.

Umar reportedly broke his hand in the first round of the fight against Umar. What made it worse was that he kept on striking through the course of the next 4 rounds with impunity. The young Nurmagomedov scion had later shared a picture of his swollen and mangled limb on social media.

With a month removed from that day, Umar has shared an Instagram story, providing an update on his recovery. Estimating a return timeline of about August, Umar said,

“I’ll be able to punch in four months, so most likely, I’ll come back in six months,”

Despite his loss to Merab, Umar is widely expected to fight for the title again soon. But it isn’t going to be a rematch, not without winning a couple of high-profile fights. So, who does he face next? The bantamweight division is brimming with killers, and he’ll likely need to fight someone like Petr Yan or Deiveson Figueredo to make a statement.

That is a tall order in itself. But his mentor and former world champion, Khabib has been confident in his abilities to make it back to the the pinnacle of the division again.

Earlier last month, the 29-0 veteran had penned down a motivational post to cheer Umar up after his loss.

Will return to the title race: Khabib’s promise

Despite the loss, Umar actually gave Merab the toughest fight of his career. He easily won the first couple of rounds and an argument can even be made for the third going in his favor. He was far more versatile and aggressive. Unfortunately, it was no match for Merab’s cardio, and therein lay the difference.

The champion picked up pace in the championship rounds and bounced around in the octagon while Umar faded away. That must have been unbearably difficult for the young fighter since he was the one who pushed Merab into a title match to begin with.

However, for his mentor, Khabib, this was nothing but a testament to his talent. Claiming that there were a few things he would like to fix before Umar found himself back in the octagon, Khabib had said,

“@umar_nurmagomedov keep your head up, junior. Yesterday you showed that you are one of the best in the world. At the moment we have a lot to work on. We will work on our mistakes and return to the title race,” 

So, it’s back to the drawing board for the young bantamweight fighter. Although he still is one of the best in the division, it was clear that he wasn’t ready for the title shot yet.