Umar Nurmagomedov may have earned the biggest win of his career over Cory Sandhagen at UFC Abu Dhabi, but that doesn’t mean he’s satisfied with his performance.
Despite winning at least four rounds on every scorecard, the undefeated bantamweight was still critical about some mistakes he made during the fight. In particular, Nurmagomedov pointed to Sandhagen’s ability to shut down his wrestling and grappling after finishing just five of 13 takedown attempts. While getting the victory was obviously most important, Nurmagomedov still expected better of himself.
“I’m not happy,” Nurmagomedov said at the UFC Abu Dhabi post-fight press conference. “It was a good performance on the striking, but if you’re talking about grappling and how I controlled him, it was not good.
“Because I [expected I would do that], I thought I would maul him on the ground, but he’s tough, he’s good. Cory’s too good and he has hard kicks. He’s a tough man. I think he has more experience than me in the UFC cage, but I won. But I’m happy, I won.”
Umar Nurmagomedov ‘not happy’ with Cory Sandhagen win, reveals advice Khabib gave him - MMA Fighting
