Usman Nurmagomedov： Paul Hughes like Conor McGregor, he keeps talking, but nobody cares

Danny Segura for MMA Junkie. I'm here with Ousmane Nourmagomedov who's set to defend his PFL lightweight title against Paul Hughes in a rematch on October 3rd in Abu Dhabi. Ousmane, how are you man? How's life going? And how's the start of this training camp? Yeah, good to hear man, this is a big fight man This is probably the best fight that PFL has put on this Obviously the first fight was amazing and a lot of people have been looking for this rematch Does the buzz around this fight get you a little bit more excited for it? Does it change anything or is it just business as usual for it? This time it's just business. I've already beaten this guy one time and now I'm going to do this twice. Now, originally when you first beat him you said that he needed to get a few wins in order to get that rematch He's fought once and won his fight. Has this been okay with you? The fact that he only fought once and now he's fighting you? How do you feel about doing the rematch right now? You know, yes he fought once but I'm staying without a fight Of course I want to fight. They said we have Paul. I said okay, if we have Paul, I'm ready, I don't care. And that's why we're going to fight. No. I guess I was waiting when PFL gave me a fight. Next year I hope I will fight again. What's ideal for you in terms of number of fights in a year? Three? What's ideal for you as far as the number of fights in a year? Because you're going to be fighting twice this year. I'm going to fight three times, three times. Beginning, middle and end of the year. This is very good for your career. You're not going to be stopping, you're working, you're fighting, you're busy doing your work. But when you hold your career for almost nine months, this is very good. And he says he wants to break you and he feels that in that fight that you guys had, he felt that you were fading, that you were getting tired, that you were breaking towards the end and that kind of headbutt saved you. That's what he says. Those are his words. What do you make of his assessment thinking that you were fading and I guess what can you say to that? You were in the fight obviously, you were there, you were feeling everything. Well, it doesn't matter what he's going to tell after when he's losing. He's looking like Conor. I take his soul and he keeps going to talk, but nobody cares. Everybody sees what happens. Same thing, yes, he was like, he showed people like he's so close to punch me, he's so close to win, but he don't do nothing for that. He saved his energy because he was scared to tire it. He's not going to wrestle, he's not going to come to the clinch, he don't do nothing. He just punched a couple of times in body, a couple of times in the face and that's it. But what I did, I landed a lot of kicks, punches, take him down. I did everything like from MMA. That's why I'm champion. But he want to talk, he want to say, I did, I'm going to do this, I'm going to broke. What he can broke? Only what he can broke, whether it's like maybe somebody in his team mates. Yes, I watched this fight like maybe like three, four times. I see my mistakes. It was a lot of mistakes, but same time I won. What did you like from your fight and what didn't you like as far as your own performance? I make mistake when I hold him in the clinch, I'm not throw knee. It was my mistakes and that's it. Other things was very good, like from clinch take him down, landed kicks, landed punches, like other things. In MMA I did very good. Only one thing, I was waiting, I make mistake when I take his neck and just hold him there. I don't know why I did like that, but next time it's not going to happen anymore. Do you remember first fight Jon Jones and Gustafsson? Jon win this fight, but yesterday was talking, they was talking, but who cares. When you won fight, nobody cares. For my side, I'm going to win this fight, I don't know how. It's going to be all five rounds, like from decisions, ambition, knockout. Honestly, I don't care. For my mind, I'm going to beat this guy and I'm going to defend my title and that's it. It's not like nothing else more. Ali Abdelaziz, your manager has had some words with him online and things have sort of been a little tense I guess between them, but between you two, outside of the competitive, do you like him as a person? Are you guys cool or was there something there? No, Paul Hughes is not bad guy, he's a good guy. Between me and him, of course he's going to try to do some hype between our fights. This is good for business, I respect that, but like a people, like a human, he's a good guy. I've seen you've been training with Islam, obviously he's getting geared to fight at 170 over in the UFC and take on Jack. He's fighting at welterweight now, he's moving up a division. Does he feel a little bigger? Yes. Because you guys were in the same weight class. Yeah, he's now a little bigger, he's improving his muscles. Eating a lot too I guess? Yeah, he eats a lot. Now he's like 88 kilos, something like that, maybe 86, but this is good. And we're so excited for him because he's a two-time champion. In our gym we don't have this guy, but Islam is going to be, inshallah. Do you ever want to do that in PFL, move up weight class, two-time champion, two-division? There is Ramazan Kuramagomedov, he's a champion. He was today in our gym, he's so big, I don't want to fight with him. Well, I ask because this kind of similar thing happened with Bilal, obviously he's not as close, but he didn't want to fight him because you guys have trained with him and stuff. No, no, no. No, I don't know about Bilal, but I see Ramazan and these guys, he's so fast and so big, I don't have any son. Maybe in the future when I will be 32, 33 years and I'm going to be more than strong, like a man. Man power is powerful, it's like different power. Maybe in the future if I'm going to be more bigger than I am right now, maybe. You're just 27, you've got plenty of time. How do you think Islam does against JDM? How do you see that one? We're going to take him down, make him tired and win this fight. All people know what we're going to do, but they can do nothing. Nothing, I think only this way. Take him down, make him tired, hold him there and after that if you can finish him, if you can, by decision you have to win. Yeah, it's going to be a great fight to watch. I'm excited for that one. I saw on your Instagram as well, earlier in the year you were going to a lot of soccer matches. You saw some PSG games, some Real Madrid games. Now the season is resuming again, any plans to check out any football? Now I have a fight, after that Umar had a fight, after that Islam had a fight, and after that I have to get into my fight. I don't think I can go somewhere, only next year maybe. Real Madrid, like 50-50, Real Madrid and PSG. PSG, I like more PSG. Of course I see, I was in the final champions. I didn't think they were going to beat Inter the way they did, it was crazy. No, I think you don't think they're going to do like that, 5-0. This is awesome. I've seen videos of Khabib playing, do you play as well? Not like him, but I play FIFA on PlayStation. Better than Khabib, better than everybody. That's important, to be the best in that. It's almost like a title, right? What team do you choose though? Last time I chose France. How do you feel about people choosing Liverpool, I feel like that's kind of cheating. Liverpool? That's cheating, it's like the best team. You don't touch in FIFA, unless maybe you have a city or... It's like a cheat code, you know? Liverpool in FIFA is like, I don't know, maybe only top 10, but even not top 5. I think top 5 is PSG, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Man City, Bayern Munich, Bavaria. Maybe only after that, because right now it's Liverpool. What was their win last time? They won the Premier League, pretty comfortably. Comfortable, yes, comfortable. Yeah, they won it way in advance. And City? City is going a little down now. Yeah, they're not doing good. I don't know what's happening. He's retired, he's got a lot of time, you know? Can you imagine, this guy knows which year, which season, which club, which player scored a goal. This is crazy, bro, this is unbelievable. When he told me, I was like crazy. I told him, I don't remember what happened yesterday, I don't know what I'm doing yesterday. What's gonna happen in 20 years? This is crazy. Maybe he should become an analyst, you know, on TV. I saw him, he was with Thierry Henry and I don't know who else was on the panel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whoever. Maybe, I don't know. Yeah, maybe. Alright, Usman, well, super excited for this title fight again, October 3rd in Dubai against Paul Hughes, the rematch. This is an awesome fight, you can't miss it, so make sure you guys tune in. Thank you so much, brother, for the time and best of luck in your training camp. And keep that FIFA title, man, that's important. Okay, okay. Thanks so much.