PFL lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov is one of the best fighters on the company roster, but his upcoming title contender Alfie Davis accuses him of having a cloud hanging over his head stemming from a drug suspension back in his Bellator days.
Nurmagomedov—the cousin of former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov—defended his Bellator title for the second time when he won a decision over Brent Primus in California in 2023, but the result was overturned to a no-contest after the Russian failed a drug test. Usman was suspended for six months and fined $50,000, but did not lose the Bellator title.
The commission never revealed which substance Nurmagomedov tested positive for, only revealing it was “a prescription medicine.” Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz said at the time that the fighter used a “medication for an illness,” explaining that “it’s not an anabolic steroid, EPO, HGH, etc. Nothing enhancing.”
Ready to challenge Nurmagomedov for the lightweight throne Saturday in Dubai, Davis doesn’t buy any of that.
“It’s very annoying, being a clean athlete and having to deal with cheats, essentially,” Davis told MMA Fighting. “I think that lifetime ban should be implemented especially because it’s fighting, you know? It’s almost like a sword if you’re using that external weapon. But there’s nothing I can do about it, essentially. So I try not to let it bother me too much.”
“But it kind of bothers me when people go on about how great the Dagestanis are,” he continued. “From observation they’ve got great technique, but they’ve been renowned drug cheats for years. That definitely bothers me and it bothers me about Usman being renowned as this amazing fighter when he’s a renowned drug cheat. People going about people being GOATs, but they’re being popped. How can you be a GOAT in a sport that you’re meant to be clean? So, yeah, that definitely does bother me, but equally there’s nothing I can do about it. And I don’t think it will help him in this fight.”
Davis wouldn’t go as far to say every MMA fighter form Dagestani is a cheater, but says “you can sort of tell from people’s careers.”
“Like, for instance, the guy I fought last, Gadzhi Rabadanov, he’d never knocked anyone out. Then all of a sudden he’s on a five-fight knockout streak and looking really aggressive, you know?” Davis said. “When you observe sort of people’s careers, there’s an argument like Paul Hughes putting on [Nurmagomedov] in the first one and he was gassed, he wanted to get out of there. He comes back the second fight and he’s lasting all five rounds looking like fit as anything. When you sort of make those analysis, that’s where you can pick if they’re being on it.
“But I don’t think that everyone will be on it because I think some people morally don’t agree with it. I mean, it’s a weird one because they’re heavily religious and they speak about like things being haram, but then they’re doing PEDs. It’s such a contradiction to me for them to do that. So I think people will morally not want to do it because of those reasons. It’s a bit of a weird one for me.”
“I feel like, especially this last year, what happened and some of the experiences in my life, I feel like I’ve been set on a journey,” he continued. “I feel like these guys, especially with what’s coming out, like they’ve been cheating for a while and I feel like I’m sort of one to punish them for that, you know? They deserve to be punished for it, and I need to punish Usman. He’s popped before, so the fact that he’s gaining all of this great stuff whilst popping, I need to be the one that punishes him and make it sure that the clean athlete wins this one.”
Whether his performances are enhanced or not, Davis is aware of Nurmagomedov’s abilities and knows he needs to be at his absolute best to leave the PFL cage with the title in Dubai.
“I think you have to put on him, you know?” Davis said. “There’s no way of outpointing him, unfortunately. He’s a smart fighter. He’s very clever. He’s very good at nicking rounds. I thought that Paul Hughes won the first fight. It was very close though. The second fight he came back and was just stealing the rounds. I can’t let him steal the rounds. I need to put on him, I need to damage him. So I’m going to go in there and make it a firefight.”
The 33-year-old Englishman wants to knock Nurmagomedov out, but isn’t sure if the Russian’s durability is a testament to his chin or “his EPO.”
“I think that if I land big enough, I think that I’ve definitely got good chance of knocking him out,” Davis said. “But we’ll see. We’ll see. I’ve not really ever seen him wobble. It looks like he’s got a good chin. I do know that he fades, though. But we don’t know how much EPO he’s been taking. I know that all of these other things are on it, so that might not be the case. I might be hitting him with big shots and he, his EPO, his chin is going to hold out. But I do think that I’m going to win.”
“I’m a striker by trade and I’m coming to put on him,” he added. “I’m trying to knock him out from the start to the end bell. That’s what I’m to be doing. I do think that he definitely underestimates my grappling. … As I said, he’s too good at winning on points and stealing rounds. What he’s not good at, he’s not good at a firefight. I think he crumbles under pressure. I think Paul Hughes sort of showed that. When the fire gets hot, he starts crumbling, so I think I’m going to make him crumble.”
If the Nurmagomedov family plans on having the 155-pounder leave for the UFC as his PFL contract is approaching its end, Davis believes he will send him out on a loss — or “his manager will probably tell him to take an easier fight and then he was going to go there anyway.”
“I’ll definitely spoil that plan,” Davis said. “I think he’ll try to go to the UFC, whatever, to be honest with you, because like when I beat him, it’s like, what’s he gonna do? Well, he’s gonna try and rematch me. But I think if I beat him in the way that I do beat him, I don’t feel like he’s deserved to rematch. He’s gonna have to get back in line for me. He’s gonna have to take one more fight in the PFL and then yeah, go to the UFC. But then we’ll know who’s one of best in the world there. But I think, to be honest with you, if you were to insert him in the UFC now, I think he does well as well. But I think he could be a titleholder in the UFC also.”
Subscribe to my channel
