Just last week, in a shocking turn of events UFC, removed Dagestani fighter Zabit Magomedsharipov from the active UFC’s featherweight rankings. A couple of days later, Russian news outlet TASS reported that Zabit could well be retiring from mixed martial arts, and now, manager Ali Abdelaziz has shined more light on the entire situation.
Zabit Magomedsharipov’s exclusion from the rankings came as quite shocking considering Yair Rodriguez who hasn’t fought for as long as Zabul continues to find a place in the UFC’s featherweight rankings. What many believed to be due to being inactive, manager Ali Abdelaziz shared his thoughts on the future of Zabit and revealed what lies ahead for the Dagestani fighter.
“I think Zabit has shown up four times to fight this Yair Rodriguez. Yair didn’t show up four times. I think he (Zabit Magomedsharipov) thinks he deserves a title shot. The UFC already has a title fight in place. And we’re gonna figure this out, you know.”
“Listen, Zabit, he feels very strongly about it. We might never see Zabit again, you know – Because he feels he earned it. But at the end of the day, as I said, this is something we will discuss behind closed doors. Everybody will know about it soon,”
Ali Abdelaziz, CEO of Dominance MMA which manages Zabit Magomedsharipov denied speaking in detail about the Zabit situation and stated that frustration for not landing a fight could have left a huge impact on him leading to his decision to retire from mixed martial arts. While the announcement of his retirement has not been made official, he is no longer part of the UFC rankings, and it remains to be seen what lies ahead for the Dagestani fighter.
Zabit Magomedsharipov vs Yair Rodriguez was booked for three times
Zabit Magomedsharipov has been inching for a comeback ever since his unanimous decision win over Calvin Kattar back in 2019. However, his match-up against Yair Rodriguez has not seen the light of the day despite being booked for three times over the past two years.
Yair Rodriguez was banned for six months after he failed to reveal his location to USADA for mandatory testing and has been allowed to compete since March of 2021. Yair recently appeared in an interview and shared his thoughts on the featherweight division. The Mexican fighter also called out Zabit, in what promises to be an exciting match-up and one that has been looked at as a potential #1 title contender’s fight for the UFC’s featherweight championship.
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