Usman Nurmagomedov believes his wrestling is different and better than that of Arman Tsarukyan.
Nurmagomedov (17-0) is scheduled to defend his Bellator MMA lightweight title against Alexandre Chabry at Bellator Champions Series San Diego in Southern California on Sept. 7. Chabry has been training with Tsarukyan (22-3), the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s No. 1 lightweight contender, in preparation for Nurmagomedov’s upcoming bout.
However, Nurmagomedov believes Tsarukyan does not have the skills to match his wrestling. Both Nurmagomedov and Tsarukyan started their martial arts careers with freestyle wrestling, but the Bellator lightweight champion later took up combat sambo, like most fighters from the Dagestan region.
Nurmagomedov claims his wrestling is on a different level than Tsarukyan’s, which he considers monotonous. Nurmagomedov doesn’t think he’ll make the same mistakes “Akhalkalakec” did in his second UFC loss to Mateusz Gamrot in 2022.
“i don’t think so [Tsarukyan can counter my wrestling]”Arman is a freestyle wrestler, but I don’t think that way. It’s not that,” Nurmagomedov told Sport24 (translated by Redcorner MMA). “I’m a lot taller than Arman, I have longer limbs, I do takedowns differently. I’m not a freestyle wrestler. My wrestling is on another level, it’s totally different to Arman’s wrestling. I’ve seen Arman fight.
[Mateusz] Gamrot. I won’t make that mistake. I won’t aim to run on one leg for 25 minutes.”
Nurmagomedov had won 14 of his previous 17 fights and was coming off a unanimous decision victory over Brent Primus, but the bout was declared no contest after he tested positive for a banned substance.
Tsarukyan, meanwhile, has won four straight bouts since his loss to Gamrot, including a split decision win over Charles Oliveira in April at UFC 300. Tsarukyan is expected to fight for the UFC lightweight title against Nurmagomedov’s teammate Islam Makhachev, who stopped Tsarukyan in his promotional debut in 2019.
