“Having him throw that broken hand if we knew he broke his hand, that’d be stupid.”
When Rich Franklin broke his hand against David Loiseau at UFC 58, cornerman Jorge Gurgel told him to “keep punching” because eventually “it will go numb.” That kind of coaching advice, on par with this grisly repair job, does not represent the philosophies of American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) head coach, Javier Mendez, or former UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Mendez joined “The Eagle” in the corner of Umar Nurmagomedov for the UFC 311 bantamweight co-main event, where reigning 135-pound titleholder, Merab Dvalishvili, prevailed after five rounds of high-octane action. But Team Umar never adjusted its gameplan, despite the fact that Nurmagomedov broke his hand during the contest.
Turns out he never told them.
“If he had told me he broke his hand, I would have changed the gameplan,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “Khabib and I would have changed the gameplan completely around because Khabib is a great corner. He’s one of the great ones that I’ve encountered cornering with. So we could have changed the gameplan, but we weren’t told that, Umar didn’t tell us. We would have changed the plan had he told us. Why would we do what we did? Having him throw that broken hand if we knew he broke his hand, that’d be stupid.”
“I would have had him kick more,” Mendez continued. “Keep the distance, keep kicking, because he’s a great kicker. But no, the gameplan was to stay inside and pick [Merab] apart, you know? And he kept putting his head down and I’m like, what the hell, you know? I go, okay, must be that much tougher. And yeah, he is that tough. But I didn’t know that Umar broke his hand. He didn’t tell us. If he would have told us, we would have changed the gameplan. But he didn’t.”
The decision cost him the No. 2 spot in the bantamweight rankings.
The UFC 311 loss dropped the 29 year-old Nurmagmedov to 18-1 and we’re unlikely to see the former PFL fighter return to the Octagon until later this year when his hand has been cleared for competition. As for Dvalishvili (19-4), his next assignment will probably be scheduled for some point this summer, assuming this gnarly infection clears up.
For more UFC 311 news and notes click here.