...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Khabib Nurmagomedov picked up his sixth straight UFC win on Saturday night, moving to 22-0 overall with his UFC on Fox 11 victory over Rafael dos Anjos.
The 25-year-old Dagestani fighter believes he should be moving on to a title fight, but he may not have heard the news that the belt is on the shelf until December.
"If they do not announce me as the next challenger for the title, then my next fight will likely take place in the autumn," Nurmagomedov said in an interview with MMABoxing.ru.
As that title fight won't be coming, he did have a few names in mind for who he could fight in his next bout.
"I do not know who my opponent will be," he said. "I will eventually get them all. If the situation will develop in this way, then I would gladly take a fight against Donald Cerrone, Nate Diaz, or T.J. Grant, but the last word is for the UFC."
Penick's Analysis: If he's waiting until the fall, a fight with T.J. Grant as the main event of the UFC's Fight Night event in Grant's hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia, sounds solid to me. That said, he's probably going to be able to return prior to that. If he wants to make a quick turnaround to fight Cerrone in June, "Cowboy" has already said he's ready to get right back into the cage, but I doubt Nurmagomedov is looking to fight again quite that soon. That said, if Cerrone manages to get a fight in Albuquerque on June 7, wins quickly again, and wants a fight in August or September, that's another option for Nurmagomedov.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
