The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced an addition to their first event on FX with a lightweight match between WEC vet Kamal Shalorus (7-1-2) and newcomer Khabib Nurmagomedov (16-0), who hales from Russia.
“Undefeated Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov has verbally agreed to make his UFC debut against powerful wrestler Kamal ‘Prince of Persia’ Shalorus January 20 in Nashville,” said UFC President Dana White.
The upcoming UFC on FX 1 event (aka UFC Fight Night 26) is scheduled to take place on January 20 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. Headlining the event will be lightweights Jim Miller vs. Melvin Guillard.
Shalorus entered the UFC undefeated last March, meeting Jim Miller at UFC 128. Miller would end that streak by stopping the ‘Prince of Persia’ by third round TKO after landing a solid knee. Fighting inside the WEC Cage, Shalorus was 3-0-1 with wins over Bart Palaszewski, Dave Jansen and Will Kerr. The draw was against Jamie Varner and was the result of a point deduction to Shalorus for accidental groin strikes.
Nurmagomedov (say that three times fast) is a perfect 16-0 and will take his first pro-bout outside of his native homeland when he travels to Nashville to face Shalorus. All of his bouts came with local promotions in Western Russia which saw Nurmagomedov earn six victories by KO, six by submission, and four by decision.