Belal Muhammad Says Song's KO of Umar Nurmagomedov Broke His Heart

Umar Nurmagomedov had gone 20-1 across 21 pro fights without ever being finished. That streak ended in the main event of UFC Shanghai, where Song Yadong dropped him with one clean shot for the first knockout loss of his career. And one of the people it hit hardest wasn't even in the building.

Belal Muhammad, the No. 7 welterweight and a longtime training partner of the Nurmagomedov camp, said the finish gutted him. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Muhammad said watching Song stop Umar literally broke his heart, and made clear it had nothing to do with the winner. He knows how much work Umar pours in, he explained, and he braced for the pile-on the second the knockout landed.

Defending More Than a Fighter

Muhammad's bigger frustration was the crowd he knew would celebrate. He said the trolls who've always wanted to see Khabib and his crew lose would come for Umar hard, and that it angered him precisely because he considers Umar one of the humblest, nicest people he's met. Muhammad even pushed back on fight-week chatter that Umar had trashed Song, insisting the comments were mistranslated from Russian and that Umar respects his opponents — including, he added, Merab Dvalishvili.

The finish itself reshuffled the top of the 135-pound division. Song, a sizable underdog going in, ran laps around the octagon as a home crowd erupted. The moment turned messy when Umar's brother Usman rushed the cage to check on him, collided with Song, and appeared to load up an elbow before pulling back. Khabib and the rest of the team eventually calmed things down and paid Song his respect.

A Brother's Reaction

Muhammad didn't fault Usman for the surge into the cage. He said he gets nervous just cornering his own guys, and asked people to imagine watching their older brother get knocked out cold. That, he argued, was the reaction, not bad blood — Usman went in to check on his brother, nothing more. Khabib had tried to stop him, and the worst-case scenario never materialized.

For Muhammad, whose own night went the other way in his last outing — a decision loss to Gabriel Bonfim — the message was to move on. Umar's aura of invincibility is gone, but at 20-2 he's still one bad night removed from being a top contender. In a division suddenly wide open, that reset might be exactly what he needed.