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Umar Nurmagomedov is looking for his next bantamweight opponent.
Nurmagomedov established himself as a legitimate bantamweight contender after defeating Raoni Barcelos in the first round at UFC Fight Night: Strickland vs. Imavov on January 14. The 27-year-old Russian doesn’t plan on waiting long before fighting again, leading to him calling out the entire bantamweight division on Twitter by saying:
“Anybody from bantamweight 11 March Plz”
Nurmagomedov wants to join the March 11 fight card stacked with bantamweight matchups. There are currently five fights at 135 pounds, including Tony Gravely vs. Victor Henry, Mario Bautista vs. Guido Cannetti, Said Nurmagomedov vs. Jonathan Martinez, Raphael Assuncao vs. Kyler Phillips, and Petr Yan vs. Merab Dvalishvili in the main event.
The Dagestan native made his UFC debut in January 2021 with a record of 12-0. Since then, Nurmagomedov has continued to impress, winning all four of his fights, including three inside the distance. Unfortunately, most of the ranked bantamweights currently have a fight booked.
Who’s next for Umar Nurmagomedov?
Umar Nurmagomedov deserves a top-ten opponent, but everyone other than Dominick Cruz and Sean O’Malley has a fight. The top-fifteen bantamweights are booked as follows:
Petr Yan (2) vs. Merab Dvalishvili (3), Marlon Vera (4) vs. Cory Sandhagen (5), Rob Font (6) vs. Adrian Yanez (13), Yadong Song (8) vs. Ricky Simon (10), Pedro Munhoz (9) vs. Chris Gutierrez (12), Said Nurmagomedov (14) vs. Jonathan Martinez (NR), and Jack Shore (15) vs. Makwan Amirkhani (NR).
Meanwhile, O’Malley is the number-one contender and plans to wait for the next bantamweight title shot. Therefore, Nurmagomedov has three options - fight Cruz, wait for other ranked opponents to become available, or fight an unranked opponent.
If Cruz is willing to accept the matchup, he could be the perfect opponent for Nurmagomedov. ‘The Dominator’ is a former UFC bantamweight champion who has proven he can still fight at an elite level. A win against him would keep the Russian active and add a highly-credentialed name to his resume.
Watch Umar Nurmagomedov defeat Raoni Barcelos in the first round at UFC Vegas 67 below:
