UFC bantamweight Said Nurmagomedov has heard some of the talk coming from his opponent, Vinicius Oliveira, at UFC Riyadh on Saturday.
He just doesn’t really care, and in fact has been close to his opponent during fight week on at least one occasion.
“Not really. Nothing specific. We actually saw each other when we were signing the posters on the first day,” Nurmagomedov told reporters through a translator on Wednesday.
“He sat right across from me face-to-face. He said nothing to me.”
Nurmagomedov (18-3) is looking to start another win streak and make his way up to the title picture. Having just watched Merab Dvalishvili defend his title against Umar Nurmagomedov
“It was a pretty tough fight for the both of them. It was a good fight, and you could say that Merab took the last two rounds. Umar also showed himself really well, it’s just that potentially because he had that injury in the fight, the outcome was different from what everybody expected,” he said.
That being said Nurmagomedov had some ideas as to how to beat Dvalishvili.
“I think you have to be very ready for all sides of the fight with him. You have to make sure that you can defend yourself from his takedowns, and then you basically have to have stamina and endurance to go with him,” Nurmagomedov said.
“That’s his biggest weapon. As long as you can do that, when it comes to stand up, I don’t think it’s that hard to be a better striker than he is. As long as you can withhold his pressure and endurance, and defend wrestling, I think you can win.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Said Nurmagomedov above. He takes on Vinicius Oliveira at UFC Riyadh on Saturday.
