Mario Bautista shares interesting thoughts about Umar Nurmagomedov’s camp ahead of UFC 321

Mario Bautista isn’t sold on Umar Nurmagomedov having a good time during his training camp ahead of UFC 321.

Bautista and Nurmagomedov are scheduled to collide in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25. The pivotal bantamweight scrap will be featured on the same card headlined by a UFC Heavyweight Championship fight between titleholder Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane. Bautista hopes to be closer than ever to a shot at the 135-pound gold, and a win over Nurmagomedov would certainly shake things up.

Nurmagomedov’s goal is to rebound after falling short in his bid for the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili back in January. During an interview with MMAJunkie.com, Bautista shared his belief that Nurmagomedov won’t exactly be comfortable in preparation for their crucial matchup.

“We definitely don’t think they’re invincible,” Bautista told MMA Junkie of Nurmagomedov’s team. “They’re great grapplers – they’re all good. Usman’s the champion over there, but it could be just Khabib is an outlier, and is just that great. Everyone expects the rest of them to just be like that, which isn’t the case. I think we have all the tools, all the guys to get ready for this, and who knows?

“I don’t expect this camp to be a good one for him because someone like Khabib is probably just going to straight push him, just because of what happened in the last fight. OK, you had that problem, we’re going to push you hard. So I don’t think it’s going to be a good camp for Umar.”

Nurmagomedov will enter UFC 321 as the No. 2-ranked bantamweight. Bautista holds the No. 8 spot and would catapult himself to a top five ranking if he can pull off the win over Nurmagomedov. Whoever emerges victorious might make a case to fight the winner of Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen, which is scheduled for UFC 320.