Song Yadong knocks out Umar Nurmagomedov and demands the title shot

Song Yadong knocked out Umar Nurmagomedov at 1:48 of round two in Shanghai, in front of his own crowd. It is the first time anyone has stopped Nurmagomedov, who had lost only once in his career and started the night a heavy favourite. Song asked for the bantamweight title before he had caught his breath.

Key takeaways

Song Yadong won it in the round he was not supposed to reach

The first round said the opposite

For five minutes, the fight went exactly the way the odds said it would. Umar Nurmagomedov closed the distance, took Song Yadong down and held him there. Song threatened briefly with a guillotine, got flattened out, worked back to his feet, and was taken down again inside the last thirty seconds. A clean 10-9 round for the Dagestani, and no sign of what was coming.

Song had been a four-to-one underdog. Nothing in the first round argued against the number.

Ninety seconds, and it was over

The second round opened with Song stuffing a takedown, which was the first thing all night that had not gone to plan for Nurmagomedov. A left hook opened a cut above Song’s eye. Then, about ninety seconds in, Nurmagomedov changed levels for another takedown and ran his head into a right uppercut.

He went limp on the way down. Song followed with hammerfists and referee Marc Goddard stepped in at 1:48. Nobody had ever finished Umar Nurmagomedov before, across twenty-one professional fights.

The corner call that turned the night

Khabib told him he could box

The detail worth keeping is what happened on the stool. Khabib Nurmagomedov works Umar’s corner alongside Javier Mendez, and between rounds, according to Bloody Elbow’s report from the arena, he pushed his fighter to trust his striking and trade with Song rather than keep hunting takedowns.

It was not an absurd read. Umar had just won the round, and Song had shown nothing on the feet worth fearing. But Song had spent his camp in Georgia specifically preparing for that wrestling, and the moment Nurmagomedov stopped leading with it, the fight became the one Song wanted.

What the loss actually costs

Nurmagomedov came in at 20-1, ranked second at bantamweight, with his single defeat a decision against Merab Dvalishvili in a title fight in January 2025. He had answered it by beating Deiveson Figueiredo in January. At 30, he was one win from a second title shot.

He leaves at 20-2 with the first stoppage loss of his career on the record, which is a different kind of setback from a decision. A points loss to a champion says you were close. A knockout says something else, and it is the version opponents will study.

Give me the title shot! I will be the first Chinese UFC champion — give me the title shot!
— Song Yadong, in the cage at UFC Shanghai

Five knockouts in six fights, and a champion-in-waiting who wants a date

The card barely used the judges

Shanghai produced one of the most violent main cards of the year. Six bouts, five knockouts, one decision.

The co-main delivered the night’s second upset: Denise Gomes stopped Yan Xiaonan with an elbow and follow-up strikes at 4:49 of round one, ending the Chinese former title challenger’s night early in her own country. Kai Asakura needed 34 seconds of round two to knock out Aoriqileng with a head kick. Liu Ce dropped Levi Rodrigues Jr. with a right hand at 4:26 of the first. Bilal Hasan knocked out Nilson Rojas at 2:28 of the second on debut. Only Sumudaerji, who outpointed Alex Perez 29-28 across the board, went to the cards.

Song wants the belt, and said so immediately

Song Yadong did not wait to be asked twice. Standing in the cage in Shanghai, he called for the shot in the plainest terms available to him, and framed it around what it would mean at home.

He is 24-9-1 with a no contest, a decade into a UFC career that began when he was 19, and he has now beaten the division’s number two by knockout. The claim is not unreasonable. Whether the timing works is a separate question, and it belongs to the champion’s calendar, not his.

There is a complication, and it sits on the calendar. The bantamweight title is already booked: Petr Yan defends against Merab Dvalishvili in a trilogy fight at UFC 333 on October 24 in Abu Dhabi. So Song is asking for a shot at a belt whose next owner will not be known until late October, and Dvalishvili happens to be the man who beat Nurmagomedov for it. Whoever walks out of Abu Dhabi with it, Song now has the strongest available claim to be next in line.

Follow the division as it reshuffles

Song Yadong’s full record, Umar Nurmagomedov’s fight history, the finish that ended it and the updated bantamweight rankings are all in the FightHub app. Download it to see where the top five lands after Shanghai.