Las Vegas — Middleweight Abus Magomedov returns at UFC 320, where he takes on Contender Series star Joe Pyfer on the Las Vegas card.
“I think Joe is a tough guy,” said Magomedov (28-6-1) during this week’s media day, adding that Pyfer was young and hungry. Still, he added, he didn’t have much to say about his opponent. “Let’s see Saturday. Let’s talk Saturday, yeah?”
Magomedov and Pyfer have a bit of a history. Pyfer, admittedly, was offered the match-up once before, but didn’t want to fight down, with Magomedov coming off a couple of losses. Now, the Dagestani-German is on a three fight win streak, and it was Pyfer actually requesting the match-up.
Abus confirmed on Wednesday that he had been offered the bout previously.
“Yeah they offered me last year, to fight against him, but I never choose some opponent. I just get the name and location where we are going to fight,” noted Magomedov. “I can’t understand too how we can say ‘no’ or ‘yes.’ We are here to fight with everyone, same goal, to be champion one day. To this moment I can’t understand how you can say ‘no.'”
Magomedov added that, now that the tables have turned and he’s on a slightly longer win streak than Pyfer, he could have done the same — refusing to fight down. “Now I can say, ‘No I don’t want to give him the opportunity,'” he suggested, “but like I said, I never choose someone against who I’m going to fight. If you’ve seen my fights, I’ve fought against everyone. I never choose, I just say ‘okay, let’s go, just send me location and the name.'”
Abus Magomedov was also asked who middleweight champ Khamzat Chiamev should fight next. “I don’t worry about this. I just worry about me, about my fight this Saturday,” he replied.
Watch the full UFC 320 media day appearance by Abus Magomedov above.
