Usman Nurmagomedov gives himself the advantage over Alfie Davis everywhere.
Nurmagomedov (20-0) defends his lightweight title against Davis (20-5-1) in the PFL: Road to Dubai main event on Feb. 7 at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai (ESPN Unlimited).
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Davis earned his shot after winning the 2025 PFL World Tournament at lightweight, where he defeated Clay Collard, Brent Primus, and Nurmagomedov’s teammate, Gadzhi Rabadanov. Davis told MMA Junkie Radio that Nurmagomedov’s wrestling isn’t that good, but the champion questions his strength, as well.
“He’s not a good striker. Who said he has good striking?” Nurmagomedov told MMA Junkie Radio of Davis. “This guy beginning talking, but people don’t know nothing about him because he just won one fight, lost three fights, began to win one, two fights with former champions or old guys. Of course he beat them, but honestly I’m not surprised by him. He’s somebody in my way.”
If Nurmagomedov resorts to his bread and butter, he doesn’t see Davis having any answers for it either.
“He only has striking,” Nurmagomedov said. “OK, I’m going to take him down for sure. For example, I take him down, what is he going to do? What’s his plan? Shabliy took him down, he didn’t get up. A lot of guys took him down, and he just tried to hold the people. He tries to not let them punch him, and he’s waiting for the round to finish, then he begins to do some taekwondo or running inside the cage, but he doesn’t understand that the cage in Dubai is a small cage. There is no space for running.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: PFL: Road to Dubai: Usman Nurmagomedov dismisses Alfie Davis’ striking
