Nurmagomedov (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

Recently Khabib Nurmagomedov reportedly argued that the UFC isn’t doing enough to promote Russian fighters, and following UFC St. Petersburg, David Shaw “respectfully” disagreed.

The lightweight champ reportedly made the comments during a recent Q&A with fans in Russia. When asked to respond to the claim, Shaw, who is the UFC’s senior vice president of international and content, said this (quote via MMA Junkie):

“I think I would probably respectfully disagree with Khabib on that one,” Shaw said. “If you look at what we’ve done, look back, we opened up the office in Moscow … 10 months ago. And in even 10 months we’ve held an event with 23,000 people at Olimpiysky Stadium in Moscow and now here at Yubileyny (Sports Palace), we’re averaging about 15,000 people.

“…The amount of marketing and promotion that went in, the thoughtfulness that went into creating the card in that we don’t just want to have Russian fighters. We had Dagestani fighters. We had Shevchenko on the card as well, right. We’re trying to get a good representation of the whole area.”

In the main event of UFC St. Petersburg, Alistair Overeem stopped fellow heavyweight contender, Aleksei Oleinik.