{"id":86908,"date":"2024-11-10T22:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T22:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/khabib-hails-usman-nurmagomedov-as-one-of-the-best-in-the-world-after-bellator-win-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-11-10T22:00:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T22:00:30","slug":"khabib-hails-usman-nurmagomedov-as-one-of-the-best-in-the-world-after-bellator-win-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/khabib-hails-usman-nurmagomedov-as-one-of-the-best-in-the-world-after-bellator-win-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Khabib hails Usman Nurmagomedov as one of the &#8216;best in the world&#8217; after Bellator win | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"flex items-center text-center\"><figcaption class=\"text-3 font-sans uppercase mr-3 whitespace-no-wrap\"><span class=\"ls-art\">Listen\u00a0to\u00a0article<\/span><\/figcaption><audio class=\"h-5 w-60 sm:w-80 rounded-none\" preload=\"metadata\" controlslist=\"noplaybackrate nodownload\" id=\"tts\" controls=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/attachments\/speech_20240909084716930-Q7iJu.mp3\"\/><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Following Usman Nurmagomedov&#8217;s dominant victory at Bellator Championship Series 4, Khabib Nurmagomedov wasted no time in praising his younger cousin, hailing him as one of the top lightweight fighters in the world.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think Usman is right now one of the best lightweights in the world. I was before, now it\u2019s our brother Islam [Makhachev], and Usman is next. This is dynasty,&#8221; Khabib remarked.<\/p>\n<p>Usman Nurmagomedov successfully defended his lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Alexander Shabliy in the main event of Bellator Championship Series 4, held at San Diego&#8217;s Pechanga Arena.<\/p>\n<p>The fight, largely lacking in action and high drama, saw Nurmagomedov (18-0, 1 NC) outpoint his Russian compatriot with precise strikes, earning the victory with scores of 50-45, 49-46, and 49-46.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was incredibly tough,\u201d Nurmagomedov, 26, said post-fight. \u201cI\u2019m happy with the win and hope to defend my title next in Dubai.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Bellator featherweight champion AJ McKee, who was watching from cageside, is a potential next opponent for Nurmagomedov, provided he overcomes Paul Hughes in October.<\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov, the younger brother of UFC bantamweight Umar and cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib, is also a teammate of reigning UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.<\/p>\n<p>This marks his second successful title defense since claiming the lightweight belt in November 2022. His October 2023 victory over Brent Primus was ruled a no contest following a positive drug test for a banned substance in a prescription medication.<\/p>\n<p>Shabliy (24-4), who came into the fight with an unbeaten streak of nine matches, including a win over former Bellator lightweight champion Patricky Pitbull, proved a tough challenge but was hesitant to engage.<\/p>\n<p>This reluctance ultimately cost him his first shot at the world title.<\/p>\n<p>Known for his striking versatility at Eagle MMA, Nurmagomedov frequently switched stances and attacked with a variety of offensive maneuvers.<\/p>\n<p>Shabliy, however, remained defensively sound, countering effectively when Nurmagomedov closed the distance, though his attempts lacked frequency to sway the judges.<\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov continued to press forward in the second round, but Shabliy\u2019s defense held, keeping him out of danger.<\/p>\n<p>The third round saw Nurmagomedov landing more kicks and a clean uppercut, although the audience grew restless with the lack of action.<\/p>\n<p>The bout\u2019s biggest moment came in the fourth round, when Nurmagomedov landed a left head kick and secured a takedown, maintaining control for the final moments of the round.<\/p>\n<p>In the final round, both fighters remained cautious, leading to a smattering of boos from the crowd as the bout concluded with little offensive activity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen\u00a0to\u00a0article Following Usman Nurmagomedov&#8217;s dominant victory at Bellator Championship Series 4, Khabib Nurmagomedov wasted no time in praising his younger cousin, hailing him as one of the top lightweight fighters in the world. &#8220;I think Usman is right now one of the best lightweights in the world. I was before, now it\u2019s our brother Islam [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/Untitled-design-(26)1725873170-0\/Untitled-design-(26)1725873170-0.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}