The clock ran out. Usman Nurmagomedov’s 90-day exclusive negotiating period with PFL is over, Bloody Elbow reported, which means the undefeated 28-year-old lightweight can now hear offers from the UFC or anyone else with a checkbook. He fought out his PFL contract in July, knocking out Archie Colgan in Round 1 at PFL New York. Fans started yelling for the UFC to sign him almost immediately, and PFL brass reminded everyone about the exclusive window. That window closed Thursday.
The money trail explains how he got here. According to his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, PFL had a chance to re-sign Nurmagomedov before the Colgan fight, looked at the figure he wanted, and passed. After the knockout, they came back with $2 million. He said no because he’s after a bigger number. My read: a fighter turns down $2 million when he believes the open market will beat it, and the open market he has in mind runs out of one building in Las Vegas.
He was recently spotted at UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi, which got the rumor mill spinning. Dana White tried to cool it down: “Well, not that I’m aware of (we haven’t opened talks with him) and I don’t know where he is on his contract situation. I just said whenever the f I said it a couple of days ago, when his contract is up and he can negotiate, we will start talking with him.” By White’s own standard, the talking can start now.
What the UFC would be buying
Strip away the last name and look at the tape. Nurmagomedov’s game is built on distance kicking backed by a wrestling threat, and the two halves feed each other. In his Bellator debut against Mike Hamel at Bellator 255 in April 2021, he leaned on a significant reach advantage, threw kicks to keep Hamel outside, and took him down whenever Hamel managed to close the gap. That’s the whole blueprint in one fight. The kick makes you want to rush. The rush is where he gets you.
Patrik Pietilä learned it at Bellator 269 in a 160-pound catchweight. Usman kicked from range, Pietilä closed, the fight hit the mat, Usman took the back and finished with a rear-naked choke in Round 1. Chris Gonzalez at Bellator 283 got tripped and caught in a guillotine, also in Round 1. Against Luis Muro at Bellator 263 it was a knee that dropped him and hammerfists to close it out. The finishes come from different places, but they share a pattern: one clean opening, then he chains straight into the next position without giving the other guy a breath.
The Benson Henderson fight at Bellator 292 is the one I’d show anyone who thinks he’s a wrestler who learned to kick. He dropped a former WEC and UFC lightweight champion with a question-mark kick seconds into the fight, then took the back and choked him out. Kicks first, grappling as the punishment for surviving the kick. I love watching it, honestly.
The background fits. He started freestyle wrestling at age eight in his home village, followed his brother Umar into Thai boxing, and picked up sambo after moving to Makhachkala to train under his uncle Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov at the Eagles MMA camp, alongside his cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev. Since his pro debut on March 26, 2017 (a Round 1 armbar of Imran Abdiev), he’s been finishing people. Of the 10 straight wins that followed in GFC and UAE Warriors, all but one came by knockout or submission.
The Hughes fights are the real tape
If you want to know how he handles adversity, skip the highlights and watch Paul Hughes twice. The first meeting, at PFL Champions Series 1 on January 25, 2025, went to a majority decision, and Usman lost a point in Round 3 for an accidental groin shot. The rematch for the inaugural PFL lightweight title at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai on October 3, 2025 went 25 minutes, and he won a unanimous decision on cards of 50-45, 49-46 and 48-47.
That 50-45 card. Look, I don’t need a judge to agree with me, but a fight that two other officials scored as close as 48-47 shouldn’t produce a shutout on the third sheet. That’s how you end up with fans and media arguing about the scoring instead of the fighting, which is exactly what happened.
Here’s my read on why those fights matter for a UFC run. Hughes is a former Cage Warriors featherweight champion, and he’s the only opponent on this record who has dragged Usman into the deep water twice. Usman didn’t find the finish either time, but he kept winning, and against someone who got past the early danger, that’s the skill that carries you through a five-round title fight. He then submitted 2025 PFL tournament winner Alfie Davis in Round 3 at PFL Champions Series 5 on February 7, 2026, so the finishing instinct didn’t go anywhere.
The file has one asterisk. His decision win over Brent Primus at Bellator 300 was overturned by the CSAC after he tested positive for a prescription drug containing a banned substance. He served a six-month suspension and kept the belt because the ingestion was ruled accidental. He went on to beat Alexandr Shabliy by unanimous decision on September 7, 2024, after the original May date fell through when he withdrew injured.
Topuria, and what it does to 155
Abdelaziz isn’t waiting for a contract to start matchmaking. Bloody Elbow reported that Usman’s team wants a UFC debut against former champion Ilia Topuria, with a win earning an immediate title shot. My read is that this is as much a price tag as a matchup request. You don’t ask for a former champion in your first UFC fight unless you’re telling the promotion you expect to be paid like a headliner, and that lines up neatly with walking away from $2 million.
Stylistically, whoever stands across from him in that debut has the same problem Hamel, Pietilä and Henderson had. You have to get through the kicks, and the moment you commit to getting through them, you’re stepping into the trip, the takedown or the back take. The guys who beat that system tend to be patient enough to wait and good enough on the mat to make the takedown costly. Hughes made it close by staying in the fight. Nobody’s beaten it yet.
For the lightweight division, this adds a fighter who was ranked No. 1 in the PFL men’s pound-for-pound list as of January 27, 2026, and who carries a family name that already sells in the UFC (his brother Umar fights there, and cousin Khabib held the lightweight belt). My pick: he’s on a UFC card in 2027. I’d also want the Topuria talk to come with a five-round main event slot, because the Hughes rematch showed he can win at that distance and I’d love to see him do it again in front of judges who actually agree with each other.
