Yadong Song believes Umar Nurmagomedov will likely have to go through him to get a chance at the bantamweight title.
Nurmagomedov is demanding a title shot against Merab Dvalishvili, but the champion believes the undefeated contender still has a lot to prove in his quest for gold. Nurmagomedov was then reportedly close to facing Song in the headliner bout at UFC Tampa in December. However, Nurmagomedov announced shortly afterwards that he was rescheduling Yadon because he was not ready to fight in that event.
Nurmagomedov has since had a back-and-forth with Dvalishvili, who has consistently accused the Dagestani of enjoying privileges because of his relationship with his cousin Khabib Nurmagomedov. Nurmagomedov has verbally agreed to postpone his bout with Song at UFC 311 in January if Dvalishvili does not agree to the fight. And ‘Kung Fu Kid’ is positive that Nurmagomedov will have to fight Nurmagomedov in January unless Dvalishvili accepts the fight before then. However, that is unlikely given Dvalishvili’s reluctance to fight Nurmagomedov and the fact that the Georgian only won the belt this past September. Either way, Son won’t know for sure until he puts pen to paper. The Chinese contestant is eager to appear on the UFC 311 card on January 18th at the Intuit Center in Los Angeles, even if it’s not against Nurmagomedov.
“I think there’s a very good chance this fight will happen…I commented on his post and said, ‘I want to fight Umar in January.'” And he added, “Merab won’t fight me. Then I will fight you.” But I think this is up to Merab,” Song told Helen Yee. “If Merab fights by March, I won’t fight Umar. But if he doesn’t fight Umar, I think I’ll fight him in January. I don’t think he’ll be there because he just got the belt and it’s too early…we’ll wait. [for the contract]. If you don’t sign, everything changes… if not him, then someone else. I’m ready for anyone, I just want to fight in January.”
