​Umar Nurmagomedov is looking dangerous going into his UFC Fight Night 286 main event against Song Yadong, according to his manager Ali Abdelaziz.Abdelaziz, the founder of Dominance MMA, was by the side of Nurmagomedov (20-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for the New Jersey-based portion of his training camp in advance of Saturday’s bantamweight showdown with Song (23-9-1 MMA, 12-4-1 UFC) at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center in China (Paramount+). It was there he got to witness a version of the fighter he hadn’t seen before.”I’ll tell you something: I’ve never seen mean Umar,” Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie in a recent interview. “Umar’s knocked out three people since I’ve been here. Umar never knocked out anybody in training. I had to have a conversation with him and I said, ‘Hey, you cannot be knocking out your training partner like that.’ And he said, ‘They need to put their hands up.’ He’s become very mean right now. It’s the wrong time to fight Umar. It’s not the right time to fight Umar now for anyone.”Nurmagomedov, 30, will look to solidify his place back in the title picture with a win at UFC Fight Night 286. After falling short of gold in his first attempt vs. then-champ Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 311 in January 2025, Nurmagomedov has put together consecutive wins against Mario Bautista and Deiveson Figueiredo.If Nurmagomedov can extend his winning streak to three, it would give him a strong argument to challenge the winner of Petr Yan (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC) and Dvalishvili (21-3 MMA, 14-3 UFC), who have a title fight trilogy bout at UFC 333 on Oct. 24 in Abu Dhabi.Although Abdelaziz obviously support the idea of Nurmagomedov challenging for the belt again, he also gave insight to the more open-minded mentality of his fighter.”Umar could sit out and fight for the title,” Abdelaziz said. “But Umar terrify me, Sean Shelby and Hunter Campbell. If you let him, Umar will fight four or five times a year. Umar don’t care. Umar said, ‘The numbers mean nothing to me, I just want to smash people’s face and cash checks.’ Umar don’t care, bro.”This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Manager: ‘Mean Umar’ Nurmagomedov showing up to UFC Shanghai main event