Is Umar Nurmagomedov regressing?

[RockyLockridge]

Just curious about what everyone thought about Umars fight at 324 against Figgy.

Since his incredible fight with merab, I think that a lot of people have had very high hopes for Umar, Citing He'd be a future champion. I was inclined to agree.

Since that fight he has fought twice. If you ask me, He looked worse against bautista than he did against Merab. He won, and he looked good, But he was incredibly gassed giving his post fight speech. I thought he might have been sick or something, I didn't think too much of it.

then for one reason or another, It seemed he got a step down with the Figgy match up and I really was not impressed at all, I think most agree that he wasn't going to earn a title shot with that performance, and if he showed up like that to merab or yan he'd probably get smoked.

what happened? He showed great promise. but seems to look worse over his last 2 fights. Does he just fight to the level of his competition and sandbag unless he's being pushed? does the Umar we saw at UFC 324 beat O'malley?

 

[Pequeño Corey]

Umar fought safe and conservative, and only to his opponent’s level. Zero pop in his punches. Now that he’s in contention, he’s surely getting coached by the other neckbeards to not take risks and try to finish fights. Sean ain’t fighting him, and frankly, I don’t blame Sean for that. Everything about Umar is boring.

 

[Kung Fu Kowboy]

Nothing screams the next title contender like being rushed out of the cage so they could honor Cruz and Travis Barker....

Umar?

 

[Rockapotomuss]

I don’t think Umar loves fighting. I think he does it because his friends and family do it, but he’d rather be playing video games with Demetrius Johnson. You really gotta love it to be a champion.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Nothing screams the next title contender like being rushed out of the cage so they could honor Cruz and Travis Barker....

Umar?

I also thought that it was strange he didn't get an interview, It was the prelim main event he had khabib and islam with him and to top it all off the next fight wasn't for another 30 mins..... they clearly had time...

 

[Alpha_T83]

I don’t think Umar loves fighting. I think he does it because his friends and family do it, but he’d rather be playing video games with Demetrius Johnson. You really gotta love it to be a champion.

Wasn't that Usman that was playing video games with DJ? I can't remember.

 

[HNIC215]

You need an opponent to showcase your skills...


Hard to showcase anything if your opponent is barely moving.

 

[mkt]

He needs to stop fighting 38-year olds and face someone who will beat him if he's too complacent.

 

[Portland8242]

The criticism about Umar's performance makes zero sense to me.

Figgy ran away from him pretty well the entire fight save for the last 30 second of round 2.

People really have no idea how hard it is to finish someone who's running way from you. Jake Paul lasted 6 rounds against Anthony Joshua doing this FFS.

If you expect Umar to just charge face first into him and bang with him you need to temper your expectations.

 

[Alpha_T83]

I also thought that it was strange he didn't get an interview, It was the prelim main event he had khabib and islam with him and to top it all off the next fight wasn't for another 30 mins..... they clearly had time...

Yea it was a bad look for the UFC. It was 2 minutes before the main card was set to start, but as you said the 1st main card fight wasn't until almost 30 mins later.

 

[fortheo]

He's just boring and risk adverse. Still one of the best in the division though

 

[RockyLockridge]

You need an opponent to showcase your skills...


Hard to showcase anything if your opponent is barely moving.

Weird retort. he had every advantage over his opponent.... figgy was a massive underdog, you'd think Umar was getting a showcase fight and would be able to do whatever he wanted with little consequnce. The thread isn't about if figgy has regressed, because he very clearly has.

 

[Rockapotomuss]

Wasn't that Usman that was playing video games with DJ? I can't remember.

Umar was too before the Merab fight. After the fight, Khabib and Islam threw Umar’s computer in the river.

 

[fortheo]

Yea it was a bad look for the UFC. It was 2 minutes before the main card was set to start, but as you said the 1st main card fight wasn't until almost 30 mins later.

Was the pacing really that bad? I caught the fights later so didn't have to deal with that

 

[TR1]

The criticism about Umar's performance makes zero sense to me.

Figgy ran away from him pretty well the entire fight save for the last 30 second of round 2.

People really have no idea how hard it is to finish someone who's running way from you. Jake Paul lasted 6 rounds against Anthony Joshua doing this FFS.

If you expect Umar to just charge face first into him and bang with him you need to temper your expectations.

Only post that makes any sense in this thread.

 

[RockyLockridge]

Was the pavong really thst bad? I caught the fights later so didn't have to deal with that

yes it was awful

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

I thought Figgy looked awful at the weigh ins and looked like he was gonna faint, but it ended up being Smotherman who fainted lol. So when I saw Figgy at the weigh ins I thought we might get an early dominant finish, but the fight just dragged on to the decision like most of Umar's fights.

 

[Alpha_T83]

Was the pacing really that bad? I caught the fights later so didn't have to deal with that

The pacing was atrocious. They lost 3 of the 9 fights on the prelims, so there were only 6 fights for 3 hours. So they slow played the early fights to the point that we had like 3 fights in the first 1 hour and 40 minutes of ads, because all 3 of those first fights were 1st round finishes.

But then they delayed the last two prelim fights too much and they were both decisions. And then they did almost 30 minutes of promos to start the main card before we got an actual fight.

 

[HNIC215]

Weird retort. he had every advantage over his opponent.... figgy was a massive underdog, you'd think Umar was getting a showcase fight and would be able to do whatever he wanted with little consequnce. The thread isn't about if figgy has regressed, because he very clearly has.

I'm not "retorting" just relaying what he said himself.


It’s easy for people to overanalyze things from behind their keyboards.

A fight is a fight -> it’s hard to go up against someone who’s just standing there.

He’s not interested in risking himself just to show off, he knows his own skills.

I'd wager, he’s also not willing to jeopardize his position in the rankings for the sake of putting on a display for fans. Khabib would probably beat his ass lol

 

[Sean Ryan]

Umar fought safe and conservative, and only to his opponent’s level. Zero pop in his punches. Now that he’s in contention, he’s surely getting coached by the other neckbeards to not take risks and try to finish fights. Sean ain’t fighting him, and frankly, I don’t blame Sean for that. Everything about Umar is boring.

This is exactly how guys like Pimplett end up getting title fights.