Abubakar Nurmagomedov won’t be making the walk in Dubai this Saturday. The 36-year-old cousin of Khabib Nurmagomedov has withdrawn from his PFL Dubai bout against David Martinez, Bloody Elbow reported. That fight was supposed to be his first MMA appearance since the UFC let him go.
He pulled out right as fight week started. No reason has been made public, and Bloody Elbow said it’s unclear why he had to withdraw.
The slot didn’t sit empty for long. Saygid Izagakhmaev, one of Nurmagomedov’s teammates, now steps in to face Martinez. It will be Izagakhmaev’s first fight since his own release from Dana White’s promotion, so the camp swapped one UFC alum for another and the undercard bout survives.
The record
Abubakar came to the UFC after an earlier stint in the PFL and finished 2-2 inside the Octagon. He never broke through at welterweight the way the family name suggested he might. His final UFC appearance was a split decision loss to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, and he was gone from the roster soon after. He has been out of competition ever since, and this card was going to end that drought by bringing him back to the promotion where he started.
For a lot of fans, his most memorable moment with the UFC came before he ever fought for it. After Khabib submitted Conor McGregor at UFC 229 in 2018, Abubakar was part of the brawl that followed, climbing the cage to get at McGregor. He was suspended for one year and fined $25,000. The suspension didn’t stop him from getting a UFC contract later. It just turned out to be the headline he couldn’t top.
The card
PFL Dubai goes Saturday, November 14, at the Coca-Cola Arena, the same night the UFC runs its Madison Square Garden championship doubleheader at UFC 334. Vadim Nemkov defends the PFL heavyweight title against Sergei Bilostenniy in the main event, which is the kind of heavyweight booking I’ll happily stay up for. Patrick Habirora and Omar El Dafrawy meet in a co-main between ranked welterweights, and Sergio Pettis and Shem Rock are also back on the card.
My take: Izagakhmaev gets the gold star this week. Taking a fight days out, in your first outing since getting cut, is how you get a promoter to remember your phone number. Abubakar is 36, and with this layoff stretching on, every scrapped date costs him something he won’t get back. Until somebody explains the withdrawal, the only fact that matters for Saturday is that Martinez still has a fight, and he now has to game plan for a different Dagestani with less than a week to do it.
