Umar Nurmagomedov Quotes & Statements

“What a fight. Wow”

– reacted to UFC 324 bout between Gaethje vs. Paddy

“This guy talked too much, and he talked about religion, talk about families, talk about like a lot of things, you know, it’s not good. You can’t be that person and not expecting that people gonna smash you... [His beatdown was] not enough. He have to be broken some legs, arms. He have to be in hospital, [between] life and death. He deserves it”

– via Complex, reacting to the violent brawl between Dillon Danis and members of the Dagestani camp at UFC 322

“I think O'Malley will win. He's taller, taller than Yadong. If the fight is going to be in the striking, I think he's going to control this fight”

– via the Paramount UFC crew, providing his technical breakdown of the UFC 324 co main event between Sean O'Malley and Song Yadong.

“Even if Merab rests for six months and fights Petr again, whether once or ten more times, Petr will always beat him”

– via Adjarabet.com (January 15, 2026), giving a blunt assessment of the bantamweight hierarchy following the title change at UFC 323

“Great, spectacular fight. Congratulations to Petr.I think on january 24 it will become clear who is next.”

– via X, congratulating Petr Yan on his victory and hinting that the landscape for the next challenger will be set after his own fight with Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 324.

“Of course, I want revenge with Merab. I want to finish. Want to hurt him. I really want to hurt him. I don't want to take him down I want to punch his face all five rounds”

– callout via UFC

“Believe me, I will be ready, [a] 100 times better than today. I will do it, and I will come to take this belt. Doesn't matter who is going to be Petr Yan, Mirab [Dvalishvili] whoever else? Doesn't matter, guys, I will become champion”

– reacted after his win over Mario Bautista at UFC 321

“As Manny Pacquiao once said any person, especially any athlete who behaves arrogantly and with pride like that will eventually be humbled. I don't know, he can say whatever he wants. We can also talk, we could say, 'we'll send Ilia Topuria to a clothing store to sell clothes again' or something like that but that's not appropriate. We don't want to do that. Islam already has a farm, and he already has sheep there and he is doing that anyways, without anyone's advice. He is already involved in farming”

– reacts to Ilia Topuria's trash talk against Islam Makhachev

“Merab deserves to be 2025 Fighter of the Year even if he loses to Petr Yan: “4 times in 1 year. Nobody with belt does this. He deserves this. Its amazing, he’s very active, he will be in history”

– via Brian Campbell

“When I saw this, I felt nice. You have to be in this mood because I hope you're gonna take the fight again. He had a chance to hurt me, but why didn't it happen? We'll see, but I like his mood, and if he'll try to do this, I'm gonna show him who's gonna be hurt.”

– reacts to Merab's "I’ll break him in the first 1.5 minutes" comment

“From [the] last fight with Petr Yan, Merab [Dvalishvili] became much better. And his last fight with Cory Sandhagen, [he showed] he's gonna wrestle all night, and it's a very big trouble for Petr Yan. He don't have good defense, but he have good arms. He can like do TKO, but if it's not going to be TKO, I think Merab [is] going to maul him”

– via Weighing In podcast

“It's very hard to compare with Khabib. Everybody looks at him and for us, his teammates and family, it's very hard to show same performance. He's different. He's like animal. Everybody think we're gonna fight the same, we're gonna destroy, but it's not always gonna happen.”

– speaks on being compared to Khabib.

“If I will choose [between a title fight and rematch with Dvalishvili], maybe revenge I want more,We’ll see. Maybe he’s going to take some rest after this fight. It’s his fourth fight of the year. It’s not easy. We’ll see what happens after our fights.”

– via mmajunkie