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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.
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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
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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