However, Nurmagomedov stayed in shape while resting his arm and, less than three weeks later, he declared himself ready to take the fight. But he still had to convince his inner circle that he was good to go before contracts were signed.
Nurmagomedov explained, “I called my manager, Ali (Abdelaziz), and I said to him, ‘Hey, I want to fight.’ He said, ‘But we said you were injured.’
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“I said, ‘Hey, I told you, take this fight,’ but my manager and my brother said, ‘Hey, you’re crazy. You can’t fight like that,’ and they said no.
“They asked again. They called me again. Would I fight with Merab. ‘Of course! I already asked Ali. Please make it any time. I want to fight before Ramadan. I want to be active.’ Merab told me at the press conference, ‘You have to be active.’ I’m not inactive because of me, it’s because the UFC couldn’t find me opponents.”