It remains to be seen if Khabib Nurmagomedov will be in attendance at UFC 257, but if he is there, it won’t be to watch his cousin fight.
Umar Nurmagomedov – Sergey Morozov has reportedly been moved to January 20
Umar Nurmagomedov, who is the younger cousin of Khabib, was originally supposed to fight Morozov at UFC 257. Since Conor McGregor is set to fight Dustin Poirier at the event, Khabib’s bitter rival, it had generated some buzz about what could transpire.
Khabib will be in Abu Dhabi this month and it was expected he would be attending UFC 257, due to Umar competing.
But, Russian MMA journalist Igor Lazorin reported the Nurmagomedov – Morozov fight’s been moved to January 20th. MMA Junkie has also confirmed the change with a source, but the reason why hasn’t been disclosed.
Lazorin did speculate, however, as to whether the change was made in an effort to keep Khabib’s team away from Conor’s. He won’t be the only person to wonder if that’s why this has happened.
Umar’s UFC debut
Nurmagomedov (12-0) has been booked three times before to make his UFC debut, and in each instance, the fight was postponed.
Originally, he was supposed to fight Hunter Azure last April but the event was canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then Nurmagomedov was scheduled to face Nathaniel Wood in July, but after his uncle, Khabib’s father Abdulmanap passed away, he withdrew.
More recently, at UFC 254 in October, a staph infection pulled Nurmagomedov from his bout with Morozov.
Morozov (16-4) is also going to be making his Octagon debut.