Khabib Nurmagomedov criticizes Magomed Zaynukov despite UFC debut win

Magomed

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

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