Athletes
Shara Magomedov Is Right Where He Needs To Be
After A Stunning Knockout Last Time Out, Shara Magomedov Hopes To Take Full Advantage Of The Spotlight At UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs Imavov
Shara Magomedov gives fight fans plenty to get excited about.
The undefeated 30-year-old boasts a crispy 15-0 record featuring 12 knockouts, and many of those finishes deserve top-billing on a highlight reel (more on that in a moment). Fashioning himself as a pirate, Magomedov quickly distinguished himself as a personality easy to pick from a crowd of exciting, aspirant stars. Through four trips to the Octagon, he collected three performance bonuses and two finishes while keeping his record spotless. Essentially, he is doing everything in his power to prove he is a star in the making.
However, if you ask him, his dreams were much more modest than you’d expect from such a flashy and eccentric fighter on the rise.
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“I once had a dream to fight at least one time in the UFC,” he told UFC.com. “Now, the goal is to get my fifth victory. Now, I have a new dream. The new dream is to have 10 fights in the UFC, 10 victories in the UFC, and then we’ll think of something new.”
Although the goals are a little loftier now, Magomedov put his stamp on the promotion just four fights and one year into his tenure. This is where we get back to that highlight reel — his last outing was arguably the proper introduction to “Shara Bullet.”
Fighting against Armen Petrosyan at UFC 308, Magomedov uncorked a spinning backfist that partially landed on his opponent. Instead of resetting, Magomedov spun around like those Japanese hand-drums and connected with another spinning backfist that sent Petrosyan clattering to the canvas.
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Magomedov, somehow unsurprised about it all, simply walked away as the referee waved off the fight in the waning moments of the second frame. The commentators on the broadcast ooh’d and ahh’d through replay after replay of the most unique knockout seen since Joaquin Buckley went viral for his two-touch kick in October 2020. The performance bonus check was basically written before he exited Octagon.
“I never expected to finish a fight with a historic knockout, with the kind of knockout that will put me in the history books and the kind of knockout that will take years to get me erased from history books because this is the kind of knockout, the kind of finish, that maybe comes once in a decade,” he said.
It was the kind of finish that catapults a fighter into a different stratosphere. The upside means the opportunities become bigger. The downside means an athlete might get pushed faster, to the detriment to their overall development.
For Magomedov, the finish set him up for the biggest fight of his life to date: a co-main event against Michael “Venom” Page in Riyadh.
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Page, who joined the roster in 2024, built his reputation as one of the most electric strikers in the sport, and his debut in the UFC was hotly anticipated. He first delivered a sample of his abilities in a decision win against Kevin Holland at UFC 299, but he dropped a decision to Ian Machado Garry at UFC 303 when the Irishman wrangled Page to the ground on several occasions.
“MVP” won’t have to worry about that against Magomedov, nor do many expect the Englishman to have a size deficit moving up to 185 pounds. Page is generally considered a bigger welterweight, and some consider Magomedov an average-to-small middleweight. Size aside, however, the matchup is a striking fan’s dream.
“It’s great when two fighters of this high caliber, of this level, when they meet together, all you see is sparks in the Octagon,” Magomedov said. “It’s going to be a very interesting bout.”
Although Page is known for his unique, karate-adjacent striking style, Magomedov isn’t all too concerned about adjusting to it in the Octagon. Rather, he believes Page is the one that will need to adjust once he feels the power in Magomedov’s strikes.
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As far as how he imagines the fight going, Magomedov isn’t really one to make predictions. Watching his fights is evidence of that enough — you don’t get that kind of spontaneous creativity if you have each move calculated and planned — but he does have a finish in mind even if he isn’t sure how it’ll come.
“I don’t think it’s going to be something that we prepared,” he said. “I expect it’s going to be something we find during the fight because when I’m inside there, I don’t even know what to expect from myself. Potentially, maybe it’s something we worked on, but really, I think it’s going to be unexpected, unpredictable.”
The fact that Magomedov has the co-main event slot on an event Israel Adesanya is headlining doesn’t feel like a mistake. Magomedov called Adesanya out previously, saying he wants to find out who the best striker in the division is after his latest outing. Even though that matchup feels several fights away if it ever does happen, Magomedov feels like he’s closer than most think.
In his pirate mentality, Magomedov is just getting started with his plundering. His fight against Page could serve as one to set him up with a Top 10 matchup his next time out. At the very least, it’s a high-profile matchup on a high-profile card that kicks off an important stretch in the middleweight division. A win, and especially one in his usual highlight-reel variety, could position Magomedov’s second year on the roster as an even grander one than his first.
“I’m already where I need to be,” Magomedov said. “Now, if I keep winning, everybody is going to be on my radar. Everybody is going to be in front of me. Nobody is going to escape me. The pirate is here, and he’s going to come for everybody.”
UFC Fight Night: Adesanya vs Imavov took place live from anb Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 1, 2025. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!