Dana White is fine with Umar Nurmagomedov getting another title shot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
But he better do everything he can to earn it at UFC 321.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nurmagomedov faces Mario Bautista in a pivotal bantamweight bout Saturday, with the winner likely moving to the front of the line to face champion Merab Dvalishvili in the near future. However, nothing is guaranteed for either contender as Dvalishvili is already scheduled to defend his title against Petr Yan at UFC 323 on Dec. 6. Even if Dvalishvili is victorious, it\u2019s unclear if he plans to make a quick turnaround for early 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Regardless, Nurmagomedov and Bautista have been actively jockeying for position and at Thursday\u2019s pre-event press conference in Abu Dhabi, Nurmagomedov straight-up asked White if his fight could officially be a No. 1 contender bout.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI have a question for you, Dana,\u201d Nurmagomedov said. \u201cCan I ask? It\u2019s possible me and Mario is a contender fight?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cCould this fight be the contender fight?\u201d White said. \u201cGo out there and put on a show on Saturday that makes people go, \u2018Damn, one of these guys should be fighting for the title next.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOK, I\u2019m going to do it,\u201d Nurmagomedov said, to which White replied, \u201cDeal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nurmagomedov began his UFC career on a tear, winning six straight fights to improve his pro record to 18-0, including a decision win over top contender Cory Sandhagen to earn his shot at Dvalishvili. At UFC 311, Dvalishvili outworked Nurmagomedov to win a clear-cut unanimous decision and hand the Russian standout his first loss.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Since then, Dvalishvili has recorded two more successful title defenses, while Nurmagomedov waited for his next opportunity. Though he\u2019s eager to sign on for another championship opportunity, it doesn\u2019t matter to Nurmagomedov whether it\u2019s against Dvalishvili or someone else.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too boring to talk about this guy all the time,\u201d Nurmagomedov said. \u201cI want to talk about the belt and if I will be next contender, it\u2019s going to be great for me, but this guy\u2014If it\u2019s going to happen, of course, I will fight. But a message for him, I don\u2019t have anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
White didn\u2019t lay out exactly what Nurmagomedov should do to impress him and the fans, but getting back to his finishing ways would likely help. Nurmagomedov finished three of his first four UFC opponents, but hasn\u2019t won inside the distance since January 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Nothing will come easy against Bautista, who has won eight straight fights and put on gritty performances against bigger names like Jose Aldo and Patchy Mix to beat them on the scorecards. Nurmagomedov is confident he\u2019ll impress whether the fight ends early or goes the full 15.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI think I just need to show best performance,\u201d Nurmagomedov said. \u201cIf it\u2019s going to be a finish, of course it\u2019s going to be great, but I think I will show all my skills everywhere and what I want I\u2019m going to show, a very good performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Dana White is fine with Umar Nurmagomedov getting another title shot. But he better do everything he can to earn it at UFC 321. Nurmagomedov faces Mario Bautista in a pivotal bantamweight bout Saturday, with the winner likely moving to the front of the line to face champion Merab Dvalishvili in the near future. However, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Dana-White-challenges-Umar-Nurmagomedov-to-\u2018put-on-a-show.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7310"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7312,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7310\/revisions\/7312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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