A Lesson in Violence: Nurmagomedov vs Hughes 1

 Prefatory Matters: 

    As I write this we are on the eve of a fantastic rematch that no one seems to be talking about. The first half of 2025 has the unique distinction of hiding away my favorite fight of the year somewhere outside of the UFC. In January of 2025 Abdulmanap and Khabib Nurmagomedov trained athlete Usman Nurmagomedov defeated rising Irish star Paul Hughes, via a contentious majority decision. PFL Champion Series 1 went unwatched by many of MMA’s more casual fans, who already struggled to keep up with the bloated number of UFC events happening week to week. Those of us who watched the spectacle in real time immediately found ourselves trying to explain to any UFC elitists we know just how damn good a fist fight they had missed and why they needed to watch the match immediately. To the uninitiated, I will try to complete this task yet again. 

Part 1: Father’s Plan and the Smesh vs the Meta: 

    Before examining who Usman Nurmagomedov is as a fighter, it might be a worthwhile endeavor to do a very quick overview of his superstar cousin Khabib and the lasting effect he had on the MMA meta. Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov is one of the most decorated sambo coaches in Russian history. Along with training world Sambo champions, Abdulmanap taught martial arts to local children in the gym above his home. Here his son Khabib would be introduced to martial arts, and eventually push his father to transition his training to MMA. Khabib was taking the world by storm at the end of what I call the “Jiu Jitsu isn’t real” era of MMA. The MMA grappling meta at the time was a fairly simple decision tree. Opponent shoots a takedown = sprawl, if you fail the sprawl attempt to bring your back to the wall of the cage and use the fence to get up. If this isn’t available simply bring yourself to turtle and build your base back up to standing. Enter the smesh of Khabib Nurmagomedov. 

SMESH:
    Khabib’s grappling game plan followed a very reliable process. Step 1 is simple, pressure your opponent to the fence at all costs. Until fairly recently the belief of the fence in MMA was that it would favor a grappler (antithetical to the current meta but that’s a conversation for another day). If one can push their opponent against the wall of the cage, then the opponent can not move away from a penetration step, and the attacker has his choice of take downs to choose from. Here we can see Khabib pressure Edson Barbosa to the fence, secure a body lock, and land a beautiful inside trip. 

Once Khabib had you down he wanted to keep your back to the mat at all costs. He would consistently return to his body lock on you until he could pass your guard as in figure 2

Or Clamp your legs as in figure 3. 

In the later case Khabib has both hands free to deliver some of the most viscous ground and pound the world has ever seen. 

Where Khabib's grappling makes the jump from impressive to overwhelming and oppressive is his expert use of mat returns. As discussed earlier the typical META of MMA is to simply return back to your feet. But Khabib would maintain his body lock and drive his weight into your back preventing you from standing as seen here in Figure 4 where poor Rafael dos Anjos attempts to build back up and is continuously driven belly down back into the mat.  

If someone did make it back to their feet Khabib would have already secured the grip for his next take down attempt and begun working for his next take down as seen here in 

figure 5. 

 

After the untimely passing of Khabib’s father Abdulmanap we would see Khabib retire with a perfect 29-0 record and shift his focus to the coaching role for his teammates. It is at this point in our story, after Khabib retired an all time great, and disrupted the META of the sport, that we can shift our focus to the rest of the cast of Eagle MMA and watch the sports slow evolution around the smesh. 

Part 2: More Than One Way to Smesh a Cat.

While some of the more casual observers view the members of Eagles as a team of diet Khabibs, each fighter has their own unique habits, strengths, and weaknesses that truly sets them apart as very different puzzles to be solved and examined. Usman Nurmagomedov is the only of the Eagles main cast that has remained out of the UFC. Likely avoiding fighting in the same division as Islam, he carries much of the usual mystique that a prospect awaiting his call for the big show does. Some of his coaches and teammates claim he is the most talented out of any one at both Eagles and AKA and many hold the belief he is the best striker from Eagles. This brings us to our first diversion from Khabib. Khabib’s status as an all time great can sometimes lead us to forget just how sloppy his striking truly was. Lacking in almost any form of defense other than standing out of range, Khabib’s striking gameplan often was little more than wait for the right moment to run at the opponent swinging sloppy strikes and pressure them against the fence and secure the take down as can be seen here in figure 1

Usman however has a comprehensive enough striking game that it warrants a brief inspection. If I were to give an elevator pitch for Usman’s striking it would be Left hand feint, straight right hand, right kick. One interesting quirk from Usman is that even though he is a switch hitter this seems to be true regardless of what stance he is in. Here in Figure 2 we can see in his bout with Brent Primus that regardless of his stance switch his primary threat came from his right leg. 

In his match with Pitbull Usman chose to fight almost entirely in southpaw and almost all of his strikes were lead leg kicks from distance because of it. Here we see him feint the left hip then land a beautiful RT hook kick. 

While many of the Eagles MMA fighters do not have the exact same suffocating grappling style as Khabib, don’t be fooled into thinking that means that they’re afraid to play the hits. Usman’s fight with Manny Muro shows him both using the classic mat returns

and locking down a leg with double underhooks to work to mount 

But even the grappling of Usman has many distinct differences than his cousin. Where Khabib often looked to shoot his opponent to the fence Usman often chooses to begin his grappling exchanges out in the open. 

When Usman does wrestle against the cage some of the contrast in preferences between him and Khabib can be seen more clearly. Khabib’s primary goal was to get your back to the mat as can be seen here where rather than attempt to take the back Khabib uses his hook to flatten out his opponent

Compare this to Usman who in his bout with Pitbull abandons the inside hook in order to attempt to attack the back

While Khabib uses the fence to attack with a deep penetration step, Usman’s goal while his opponent is against the fence is to turn him and look for the outside grapevine to either take the back or attack an inside trip as in Figure 9. 

The viciousness of Usman’s back attack was on clear display on an aging but still incredibly potent Benson Henderson. 

Here we see that while attacking the back Usman is capable of trapping Benson’s hand and still delivering violent ground and pound.

If Usman is not able to turn his opponent to set up his grapevine attacks then he is more than comfortable simply looking to gain the initiative and strike on the break. 

So with a skill set this dominant competing outside the UFC you may be wondering if there is anyone who is able to test the young Nurmagomedov. Is there any talent at lightweight that can even pose a threat to Usman outside of the UFC or would we have to wait for him to jump ship to see him truly tested? 

Part 3: Have You Heard the News

    Paul Hughes made headlines when he exited the Cage Warriors promotion as their former featherweight champion and top lightweight prospect. As he splashed into the free agent pool, the UFC tried to sign Hughes but was unable to sign him due to predictable monopoly man stingyness. In a rare win for the promotion, the PFL found themselves with the biggest star to come out of Ireland since Conor McGregor. So what made Hughes such a big acquisition? Much of what Hughes is and does can be seen in his most recent bout against Bruno Miranda (His only fight since his Nurmagomedov loss). 

Paul Hughes pressures his opponent to the fence with feints and level changes then counters him with an atom bomb of a left hook. But to understand how Paul Hughes became one of the hottest European prospects outside of the UFC we must first look at his evolution through his run at Cage Warriors.
Hughes the Cage Warrior

    Hughes debuted in Cage Warriors in 2020, a year where he would have 3 fights and his first career loss. After 2 stoppage victories Hughes would lose a split decision to Jordan Vucenic. Hughes would avenge this loss 2 fights later, to win the Cage Warriors featherweight title. This begs the question: what was Hughes lacking in his development at this point? Hughes came into Cage Warriors with incredibly slick hands and a marvelous ability to scramble. In his debut loss he can be seen throwing fantastic combinations and hitting switches mid air. But one thing he hadn’t developed yet is a well educated clinch game. Hughes could be seen being held and kneed in bad positions in his early career. Learning to clinch and when to strike on the break, is that beautiful glue that holds the mixing of the martial arts together. Hughes developed a META strategy for his clinch around being able to let his powerful hooks go. Hughes favorite position is to secure an overhook on one side and wrist control on the other.

This is not the strongest position to look for a take down but is a double attack in terms of clinch fighting. If you spend too much time attempting to fight the wrist the Hughes can swing a hook off over your arm on the overhook side.

However if Hughes is allowed free reign over your wrist then Hughes can move your hand past your center line and throw a hook before your hand can return to your face. In this example Hughes uses one of this writer's favorite dirty tricks: the overhook wrist trap. Trapping the opponents arm and wrist leaving Hughes able to strike with his free hand.

Of course if you simply lose track of the hand battle all together Hughes may use the moment to disengage and land combinations on you before you realize the grappling exchange has even ended.

Hughes has power in both hands and prefers to attack by combination when possible. Here we see Hughes totally willing to trade with opponent and shifting his head slot as he continues to march forward throwing his hand. 

Big News in the Big Show

    While much of Hughes as we know him today had formed in Cage Warriors there were some key factors in his Bellator/PFL fights that were crucial to his development now. In his Bellator debut against Bobby King we saw Hughes morph into the pressure cooker we know him as today. Many confuse pressure fighting with high volume strikes and swarming. However effective feints and anything that makes the opponent concerned an attack may be coming is also applying pressure to them. 

Where Hughes in his cage warriors career was content to move backwards looking for an opening for a counter, now he crowds his opponent and forces 

them to pull the trigger once they've already been cornered in an inauspicious position.

The result was a 2nd round ground and pound victory for Hughes. Though Hughes showed skill in this fight, King was somewhat of a journeyman, and Hughes didn't win this fight without adversity, suffering a big knockdown in the first round. 

Hughes Biggest test

Perhaps this is the reason that Paul Hughes opened as a +200 underdog against Aj McKee. McKee a very talented grappler and former bellator featherweight champion, 

remains one of the best talents outside of the UFC today. This was a 

moment where Hughes would truly have to rise above his previous performances if he was to have success against the former champion. Big News, being the underdog anime protagonist he is, showed up like never before. Against McKee Hughes played the hits 

He struck cleanly breaks off the clinch 

He pressured with head slot changes, level changes, and feints. 

And he struck with vicious counters like this devastating knockdown in round 1.

But one thing that showed me the true talent of Hughes is his willingness to engage in grappling exchanges to give McKee a clubbing on the ground 

When fighting a specialist, many all round fighters use their well roundedness to fight on their terms rather than their opponents, but only the truly elite are also willing to say "I am a mixed martial artist and I can live in your best discipline for a time and come out unscathed." Hughes had proved he was the real deal. His second victory in the promotion wasn't against a journeyman but one of the best talents the promotion had to offer. He was Big News indeed. 

Part 4: CLASH OF TITANS

Though Hughes' win certainly solidified him as a #1 contender very few people gave him an actual chance against the champion. One stand out performance was not enough to sell the public that Hughes could upset the apple cart that was “Fathers Plan”. 

Perhaps part of this is because we saw McKee have success with what seemed like a diet version of Nurmagomedov's specialty. Here we see him take Hughes down with Usman’s favorite take down the outside trip 

And much of round 3 Hughes spent controlled by a body lock or lowa ride by McKee. 

Whatever the reasons Hughe opened a massive -450 underdog in his challenge against lightweight King Usman Nurmagomedov. 

The Battle

Compared to the rest of their bout the first round is a mostly trepidatious affair. Hughes walks forward pressuring Usman trying to set a trap, but rather than run into Hughes’ hands, Usman is content to keep Hughes at long range with his kicks. There is possibly a universe where the entire fight plays out like this. Usman keeps Hughes at range, as Big News fails to land anything of substance, and cruises to an easy 50-45 unanimous decision. 

However two things started to become clear by the beginning of the 2nd round. 

1.)  flicking taekwondo kicks constantly would be taxing for Usman. He would have to force the fight to stay at a slow pace if he planned to maintain this as a strategy over 25 minutes.

 2.) Paul Hughes was coming to the realization that if he wanted to stay afloat in this fight he couldn't just sit back and hope for the intercepting counter, he would also have to lead. 

One minute into the second round we see Hughes march forward and throw Usman across the cage with a switch teep. Moments later he swings wildly and Usman attempts a reactive takedown. Hughes easily shucks him off and suddenly ladies and gentlemen we have ourselves a fight. In round 2 Usman attempted to continue to maintain the distance with kicks but found Hughes charging at him with reckless abandon. Usman attempted the reactive take downs, which would be defended by Hughes. Usman looked to recover and take control of the clinch fighting with a double collar tie but Hughes refused to go down and searched for opportunities to land big hooks to the body. As an all rounder he can live in Usman's world for a time. 

This second round set the pace for what would be a back and forth battle with both fighters constantly making adjustments to each other. Unable to maintain the kicking strategy he started with Usman was forced to mix in more of his punches as Hughes charged I'm catching him 1-2’s and clean straight right hands like can be seen here 

After all, as an all rounder Usman can exist in Hughes' discipline for a time as well. 

Hughes met this challenge by entering with preslips deep into his inside. This helped counter the straights of Usman and helped Hughes set up his power punches. 

 Hughes looked to throw leads to the body. Leads to the body are even more potent against wrestlers because as they lower their level a body shot suddenly the strike hits them clean in the head. If Usman did not level change Hughes successfully “puts some water in the basement” to use the old boxing phrase, then make his way back up top with a body head combination. Hughes’ choice to continuously pursue combination punching gave Nurmagomedov very little room to breath in this fight. 

By the fourth round of their bout Hughes was finding Usman’s chin with a shovel hook like uppercut with high levels of reliability. 

Here we see Hughes preslip inside and catch Nurmadomedov on the level change 

Usman looked to implement his grappling plan by catching Hughes overextended while he was on the lead and attacking by combination. Hughes defended many take downs early but Usman finally got Hughes to the ground for the first time in round 3.

Hughes would attempt to build back up to his feet and would often be met with some absolutely filthy mat returns by Usman

Hughes to his credit other than some unappealing knees to the butt in round 5 managed to avoid most of the ground and pound from Usman. A notable exception being this beautiful moment of smesh at the very end of round 4. 

Late into the fight Hughes found a possible counter to the seemingly unstoppable dagestani mat returns. The Body lock and mat returns from Eagles is so hard to defeat because you must both break the locked hands and get separation from the opponent before they can reapply chest to back pressure on you. The switch turned out to be a perfect counter to the smesh. In a switch the fighter reaches behind to their opponent's leg and puts a large amount of pressure on their arm (taking care of the first barrier of breaking the grip) then sits out and reverses position (clearing the second barrier of creating separation). Hughes managed this technique perfectly twice in round 5. 

Note that Hughes made it a point to clear Nurmagomedov’s hook and angling his legs away from his attackers before hitting the switch. A notable example of the consequences of not doing this can be seen in Dustin Poirier's fight with Khabib 

Here we can see that Khabib, because he still had the inside angle, was able to roll Dustin’s back directly to the mat then force him belly down. 

Results

After a hard fought war, with many competitive rounds, and a point deduction, Nurmagomedov took home a majority decision win that is somewhat contentious. Score cards for this fight vary widely depending on who you ask. The majority of fans on MMADecisions scored it a draw as did half the media scores. The other half of the media scores scored it for Nurmagomedov which is the second most popular fan score. I personally had it 3 rounds to 2 Hughes before the point deduction but the fight was certainly close enough that I could see a variety of valid score cards. I plan to publish this breakdown on the night of their rematch and hopefully bring attention to the possible masterwork that we may get a second time. A banger once does not guarantee a banger twice unfortunately, but regardless the result Nurmagomedov vs Hughes 1 will always be a timeless fight and worth revisiting