Khabib Nurmagomedov criticizes Magomed Zaynukov despite UFC debut win

Sayan NagMon, July 27, 2026 at 2:51 AM UTC·2 min read

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.