Javier Mendez revealed that Umar Nurmagomedov hid his broken hand from the team at UFC 311.
Nurmagomedov broke his hand in Round 1 of his title fight against bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili on Saturday at UFC 311 from at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. After winning the first two rounds on two of the three judges’ scorecards, Nurmagomedov was outlasted for 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 had no idea Nurmagomedov broke his hand early on.
“If he had told me he broke his hand, I would have changed the game plan,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “Khabib and I would have changed the game plan completely around because Khabib is a great corner. He’s one of the great ones that I’ve encountered cornering with. So, we could have changed the game plan, but we weren’t told. Umar didn’t tell us. That just shows you the kind of warrior he is. We would have changed the plan had he told us that. Why would we do what we did, having him throw that broken hand, if we knew he broke his hand? That would be stupid.
“I would have had him kick more. Keep the distance, keep him at a distance, keep kicking because he’s a great kicker. But, no, the game plan was to stay inside and pick him apart, and I was wondering what the hell? And he kept putting his head down. He kept putting his head down more than often, and I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ I go, ‘OK, Merab must be that much tougher.’ And yeah, he is that tough. But I didn’t know that Umar broke his hand. He didn’t tell us.”
Dvalishvili’s head coach, John Wood, also revealed that his fighter was dealing with adversity going into the fight. Dvalishvili (19-4 MMA, 12-2 UFC) suffered multiple gashes to his right leg after colliding with a set of stairs, which required 27 stitches to repair. Wood said Dvalishvili also pinched a nerve in his back in the lead-up to the fight.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 311.
