Aljamain Sterling Says UFC Rushed Umar Nurmagomedov to the Top
Aljamain Sterling says the UFC made a mistake by pushing Umar Nurmagomedov into the bantamweight elite before he was ready. The former champion’s comments land a week after Nurmagomedov was knocked out in Shanghai, and they frame that upset as the product of a rushed climb.
Sterling made the point on his own platform, via Funk Master MMA. He did not blame Nurmagomedov for taking the fights in front of him.
“You have to level up with your competition. You have to take your time. I think UFC did him a disservice when they rushed him to the top.”
That is a veteran’s read of a career that moved fast. Nurmagomedov was 18-0 when the UFC put him in a title fight at UFC 311 in January 2025, only his seventh bout inside the promotion.
He had just beaten Cory Sandhagen over five rounds. The next assignment was champion Merab Dvalishvili, and the unbeaten record ended by unanimous decision.
Sterling knows that division from the other side of the belt. He won the bantamweight title the long way, then watched Nurmagomedov jump the line that most contenders spend years trying to reach.
The Shanghai fight was supposed to put Nurmagomedov back on the doorstep. Song Yadong stopped him at 1:48 of round two on Aug. 29 at UFC Fight Night 286, landing a short right hand as Nurmagomedov dropped his level for a takedown.
It was Nurmagomedov’s first career knockout loss and only his second defeat. He fell to 20-2 overall and 8-2 in the UFC.
Song (24-9-1, 1 NC) was a sizable underdog in his hometown. He earned a Performance of the Night bonus and immediately asked for a title shot.
Official rankings released after the event moved Song as high as No. 3 at 135 pounds. Nurmagomedov slid to No. 5.
Petr Yan holds the belt after taking it back from Dvalishvili, and those two meet again at UFC 333 on Oct. 24. The Shanghai main event had been treated as a final audition for whoever came out of that trilogy.
Sterling’s argument is that the audition came too soon, not that Nurmagomedov lacks talent. He has said before that another measuring-stick fight would have served Nurmagomedov better than another leap at the title.
The résumé in between the two losses did not slow the UFC down. Nurmagomedov beat Mario Bautista at UFC 321 in October 2025 and former two-time flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 324 in January.
Both were unanimous decisions. Neither was a five-round war with a killer on the feet, which is the kind of step-up Sterling is talking about.
Song had already beaten Figueiredo by submission earlier this year and had gone the distance with Sean O’Malley. He was ranked below Nurmagomedov, but he was not a soft touch, and Shanghai showed the difference between control and danger.
Sterling is not a random critic of the 135-pound picture. He is 26-5 as a former bantamweight champion, now ranked No. 4 at featherweight after a unanimous decision over Youssef Zalal on April 25.
His last two wins, over Zalal and Brian Ortega, came against ranked opposition at 145. That path is slower than Nurmagomedov’s, and it is the model Sterling is holding up.
None of this makes the knockout Song’s fault or Nurmagomedov’s. Sterling is pointing at matchmaking, and that is his opinion, not an official UFC admission.
The promotion has a history of fast-tracking the Nurmagomedov name because the brand sells. Umar is Khabib’s cousin, he wrestles at a high level, and he looked like a future champion after Sandhagen.
The other side of that bet is what happened in round two in China. A fighter built on takedowns ran into a puncher who timed the shot, and the title talk stopped in under two minutes.
A rebuild against another ranked bantamweight would match what Sterling is prescribing, whether the UFC listens or not.
Song is now the problem in the division. Yan and Dvalishvili are occupied until late October, O’Malley sits at No. 2, and the man who just finished the former title challenger is not going to wait quietly.
Sterling’s next fight is also unbooked. His comments still matter because they come from a former 135-pound champion who climbed that ladder without a famous last name doing the work for him.
If Nurmagomedov comes back the slow way, the Shanghai loss becomes a correction instead of a collapse. If the UFC puts him straight back into a title conversation, Sterling has already said what he thinks of that idea.