Umar Nurmagomedov lost the chance to become the second coming of Khabib Nurmagomedov in his UFC 311 title clash against Merab Dvalishvili. Things started remarkably well for the Dagestani as ‘Young Eagle’ even dominated the Georgian for the first two rounds, and looked en route to a dominant victory. Alas, ‘The Machine’ came back with a vengeance, lived up to his moniker, and took the last three rounds to retain his title. Sprinkle that with some late-stage showboating and slamming the young prodigy in front of the Hall of Famer and you have a recipe for an all-timer.

Moreover, Umar lost his fabled ‘O’, and thus the opportunity to be in the same conversation as his more illustrious cousin. But what many miss amid the hyped Dagestani’s loss, who had been given the fast-track to the title, is that he had broken his hand during the fight. And that too in the first round, according to the Dagestani and his camp. His manager, Ali Abdelaziz had even posted a photo of Umar’s clearly broken, swollen-like-a-balloon hand. And since that barn-burner of a fight, everyone has been eager to watch ‘Young Eagle’ back in action and trying to make another push for the title.

So when will he be back? Well, the former title contender provided an update in a recent X post. “As much as I want to, I’ll only be able to fight in October. Fighting with an injured hand is stupid. I’ll come back when I’m 100% healthy. If someone’s in a hurry, no problem at all. Everything is ahead of me. We’ll fight one day,” ‘Young Eagle’ wrote.

While we do not know how badly Umar’s hand was broken, he did fight four rounds with the broken hand. So it could well take several months for his hand to heal fully. Of course, he can’t train with a broken hand either. He may even have to wait for a couple of months after his hand heals to use it in a sparring or fighting setting to make sure he doesn’t break it again. So a nine-month hiatus before his next fight does make sense.

Not to mention October is the time for the UFC’s annual Abu Dhabi PPV card, where Dagestani and other Muslim fighters like to fight. So October does seem like a good time for ‘Young Eagle’ to come back. But what of the ‘if anyone is in a hurry’ part of his tweet? That seems Umar is addressing someone in particular. Indeed he is!

Umar Nurmagomedov is clearly in Petr Yan’s crosshairs

Petr Yan is back to his winning ways. The Russian former champion, of course, lost the title to Aljamain Sterling via a DQ and lost a close split decision to him in the rematch, which was followed by another close split decision loss to Sean O’Malley, and a tough loss to Merab Dvalishvili.

But now, with consecutive victories against the surging young lion Song Yadong, and veteran former flyweight champ Deiveson Figueiredo, ‘No Mercy’ is back in title contention. And he knows what will get him another title shot! A win over the prodigal Umar Nurmagomedov. In fact, the boxing dynamo even called out Umar recently, which prompted a brief but emphatic “Abu Dhabi – October,” by ‘Young Eagle.’

This prompted Yan to demand another worthy challenger, citing the Dagestani’s reluctance. “Umar is not ready. I hope there will be a worthy challenge for June – Baku or July – Abu Dhabi,” Yan wrote on his Instagram story. So yeah, it does seem like the accusatory tone Umar was taking in his aforementioned tweet is to clarify that he isn’t ducking Yan or scared of fighting him.

To be fair ducking is the worst accusation you can make against a fighter, so it isn’t surprising to see the Dagestani, who doesn’t have the same stoic disposition as his more illustrious cousin, get a bit heated defending his honor. What do you think about Umar Nurmagomedov’s revelations about his comeback timeline?