Umar Nurmagomedov Says He Gave All He Had With Broken Hand
Umar Nurmagomedov says a broken hand did not leave him with unused effort in his UFC 311 title loss to Merab Dvalishvili. Speaking to Red Corner MMA, the former challenger said he pushed as far as that night would allow and is not sitting on the performance as unfinished work.
The timing is not random. Nurmagomedov, 20-1 and ranked No. 3 at bantamweight, headlines UFC Fight Night against Song Yadong on Aug. 29 in Shanghai. The Dvalishvili fight remains the only loss on his record and the only time he has left a UFC championship bout without the belt.
That meeting took place Jan. 18, 2025. Dvalishvili kept the title by unanimous decision, 48-47, 48-47, and 49-46, after a five-round grind that flipped once the championship rounds arrived.
Nurmagomedov told Joe Rogan that night that he broke his left hand in the first round and could not punch the way he wanted after that. Surgery followed, and photos later showed hardware in the repaired finger.
He is not using that injury now as a claim that the judges got it wrong. He is using it to explain the limit of what he could still produce.
“I did everything I could,” Nurmagomedov said. “I fought as hard as I could with a broken hand, and it wasn’t like I could’ve done more in this fight but I didn’t.”
The sentence is blunt. He is not saying a healthy hand would have guaranteed the belt. He is saying the fighter who stayed in there, damaged, did not hold anything back.
That was not obvious to his own corner at the time. Javier Mendez later said Nurmagomedov never told him or Khabib Nurmagomedov about the break during the fight, and that the plan would have moved toward kicks and distance if they had known.
Instead, he stayed in range. Dvalishvili’s pace took over the last three rounds, which is why two of the three cards were 48-47 and the third was a wider 49-46.
Dvalishvili had his own injury story that night and rejected the idea that a broken hand explained the result. The Georgian’s position then was simple: both men were hurt, and the job was still to win.
Nurmagomedov’s public view of the loss has shifted since January 2025. Right after the fight, he said he did not think he lost and needed to rewatch the tape.
By June, he had drawn a harder line on himself. He said the injured hand was not an excuse, that he clearly dropped the third and fourth rounds, and that he accepted the outcome.
The Red Corner MMA comments fit that later version more than the octagon interview. He is protecting his effort, not the scorecards.
The division has moved while that argument cooled. Dvalishvili lost the title to Petr Yan at UFC 323 and is booked to meet Yan again for the belt at UFC 333 on Oct. 24.
Nurmagomedov has won twice since UFC 311, outpointing Mario Bautista at UFC 321 and Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC 324. Those wins put him back in the title conversation without requiring an immediate rematch with Dvalishvili.
Song is a ranked 135-pound contender coming off a submission of Figueiredo in Macau and is 23-9-1 overall. The Shanghai main event is a chance for Nurmagomedov to make it three in a row with two healthy hands.
That is the practical meaning of his latest remarks. He is not campaigning for Dvalishvili in this clip. He is closing the file on whether he underperformed through the injury.
A win over Song would keep him behind Yan and Dvalishvili as one of the fighters who can still force a title fight at 135. A loss in China would stall that climb and hand Song the home-country result he has been chasing.
Nurmagomedov meets Song in the main event of UFC Fight Night on Aug. 29 in Shanghai. Dvalishvili’s trilogy with Yan follows two months later at UFC 333.