RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Yahoo Sports — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 1 sourcesMagomed
Zaynukov received some criticism from Khabib
Nurmagomedov despite a successful
Ultimate Fighting Championship debut.
Zaynukov took on fellow debutant Damian
Rzepecki (10-1) in a lightweight matchup at
UFC Abu Dhabi . The Russian unleashed vicious elbows to batter
Rzepecki, who showed immense heart in going the distance. “Wild
Chanco” eventually earned a unanimous decision win, handing
Rzepecki his first professional loss. What Khabib Told Magomed Zaynukov after his UFC Abu Dhabi
victory
However, Zaynukov’s teammate and mentor Nurmagomedov still found a
flaw in his performance. While the UFC Hall of Famer lauded
Zaynukov on his win, he didn’t like the young prospect from his
team missing a takedown. Meanwhile, fellow teammate Islam
Makhachev congratulated Zaynukov on the exciting victory.
“Yeah, we spoke immediately after I got out of the cage,” Zaynukov
said at the post-fight press conference. “Khabib said that it was a
great fight, it was an exciting fight, fun fight. ‘But you missed a
takedown,’ he said, ‘And that’s not OK.’ Islam just said,
‘Congratulations, that was a fun, exciting fight.’ But they kind of
expected that this was going to be that type of fight.”
Zaynukov (9-0) was already quite popular on social media even
before earning his UFC contract on
Dana White’s Contender Series last year. The 31-year-old had
significant hype behind him going into his Octagon debut in Abu
Dhabi, further boosted by the viral “John Pork” meme. Magomed “Chanko” Zaynukov says
Khabib
Nurmagomedov spoke to him immediately after his dominant UFC
debut, with his first reaction being to point out the one mistake
he made, saying he shouldn’t have missed a takedown. 😅
“Khabib told me it was a great, exciting fight, but said,… pic.twitter.com/lYbYqKCCSN — Red
Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA)
July 26, 2026
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.