Daniel Cormier is sending his support to Usman Nurmagomedov after the PFL champ jumped into the cage after UFC Shanghai’s main event and came an inch away from assaulting winner Song Yadong.
Yadong had just knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov with a big uppercut in the second round of their bantamweight fight. An emotional Usman jumped the cage and then started to throw a spinning elbow at Yadong, who was running across the cage in celebration. Whether Usman stopped himself or the strike missed is still a hot topic of conversation, but “DC” wants people to give Usman some grace.
“He did not elbow him,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “Let’s stop making conspiracy theories out there, people. He did not elbow him, and he did not attack Song Yadong. What he did was try to get to his brother. Now, that in itself is not allowed. We are not allowed to do that.”
We often hear about all the other Nurmagomedovs and how they’re related to Khabib Nurmagomedov. Most know that Usman and Umar are cousins of Khabib. But less known is that Usman and Umar are brothers.
“If there’s anyone, obviously, that you care about immensely and you wanna try to rush to their side in that moment, it is your brother,” Cormier said. “[Your] blood brother, not a brother as in a friend that you love, not a cousin, not a relative. This is his actual brother. So he jumps to the octagon, which is not allowed. But if there’s any time that someone will deal on emotion, you would think that it was this.”
“The reason they don’t let people jump is because of the things that happened,” he continued. “Khabib and Conor [McGregor], and all those other things. They cannot control whenever the situation gets chaotic, and that’s why Usman cannot do that.”
“But again, I am more inclined to give him a bit of grace because you watch your brother get sparked in that way. But he’s not the first brother to get beat. Obviously, he needs to learn how to handle that a little bit better if it is to ever happen again.”
Cormier is a longtime American Kickboxing Academy teammate alongside Khabib Nurmagomedov and the entire Dagestani crew, who train there when they’re in America. He’s been accused of bias in the past when it comes to the Nurmagomedovs, and he’s certainly showing it again here.
Usman Nurmagomedov just came close to ending a major event in Shanghai, China by knocking out the Chinese underdog fighter beat his teammate. What a debacle that would have been. It’s still ridiculous without that worst case scenario playing out. Usman is already on the sidelines for the coming months as he waits out an exclusive negotiation period with the PFL. He deserves to serve a suspension as well.
