After having retired from the UFC, Khabib Nurmagomedov starts the second leg of his life as a coach and promoter. He now aims to guide his younger relatives, and the next generation of Dagestani fighters to the levels of success that he achieved. Umar Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s younger cousin, made his UFC debut tonight. 

Umar fights in the bantamweight division. He took on a tough adversary in Sergey Morozov. Nurmagomedov could not have asked for a better debut than he had today, as he submitted Morozov in the second round of the fight. He is highly touted by Khabib and his team, and it will be impressive to see how far he is able to go in the bantamweight division. 

Khabib Nurmagomedov celebrates win with his cousin Umar Nurmagomedov

Umar started the fight off slowly, but picked up the pace as the fight went on. He could land an impressive 32 total strikes with an accuracy of 67% and 25 significant strikes with an accuracy of 61%. He also secured 5 of his attempted 11 takedowns. 

Nurmagomedov was able to secure a takedown and work his way through the positions and sink in his signature rear-naked choke. In a freak coincidence, he made his UFC debut exactly nine years on to the date Khabib made his UFC debut as well. Both men secured a rear-naked choke on their debut. However, Umar did it one round sooner than his elder cousin. 

Umar Nurmagomedov joins a stacked bantamweight division with a lot of big names. He is only 24-years old at the moment and will surely blossom under the tutelage of Khabib and Javier Mendez. It will be interesting to see how the younger fighters from the Nurmagomedov clan fare in the UFC. 

What did you make of Umar’s debut in the UFC? Will he attain the levels of success as Khabib? Let us know in the comments below!