Javier Mendez revealed that Umar Nurmagomedov hid his broken hand from the team at UFC 311.
Nurmagomedov broke his hand in the first round of his title fight against bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili on Saturday at UFC 311 from the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. After winning the first two rounds on two of the three judges’ scorecards, Nurmagomedov survived a unanimous decision loss.
Mendez was surprised to see Nurmagomedov (18-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) resort to grappling after having success on the feet in the first two rounds. That’s because he didn’t know Nurmagomedov broke his hand early on.
“If he would have told me he broke his hand, I would have changed the game plan,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “Khabib and I would have completely changed the game plan because Khabib is a great corner. He’s one of the best I’ve ever encountered turns with. So, we could have changed the game plan, but we were not told. Umar didn’t tell us. That just shows you what kind of warrior he is. We would have changed the plan if he had told us. Why would we do what we did, making him throw away that broken hand, if we knew he broke his hand? That would be stupid.
“I would have made him kick more. Keep the distance, keep him distance, keep kicking because he’s a great kicker. But no, the game plan was to stay in and pick it apart, and I was like, what’s going on? And he still lowered his head. He kept lowering his head more often, and I was like, “What the fuck?” I said, “OK, Merab must be even harder. » And yes, he is that tough. But I didn’t know that Umar had broken his hand. He didn’t tell us.
Dvalishvili’s head coach John Wood also revealed that his fighter faced adversity before the fight. Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) suffered several gashes on his right leg after colliding with a staircase, which required 27 stitches to repair. Wood said Dvalishvili also pinched a nerve in his back before the fight.
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