June 21, 2026, 9:20 p.m. ET
LAS VEGAS – Murtazali Magomedov met the media Saturday after his win over Melsik Baghdasaryan at UFC Fight Night 279.
Magomedov (11-0 MMA, 11-0 UFC) pulled off a stunning first-round submission of Baghdasaryan (8-4 MMA, 3-3 UFC) at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas with just the fourth twister in UFC history.
After his bonus-winning stoppage, Magomedov said the move was a new one in his arsenal and dished on how he picked it up.
“This exact twister was shown to me by a brother of mine, Askar Askarov,” Magomedov told MMA Junkie and other reporters at his post-fight news conference. “He was the one who taught me this specific move. I started training it and training it and training it, and eventually it started working in practice.
“In the fight itself, once I took his back, it was on autopilot. I saw it, and I knew I was going to (get the twister). He was here in Vegas about a month ago, and this is what we worked on.”
Askarov went 3-1-1 in the UFC, but was released after a history of weight issues. His wins in the promotion, however, include one over former flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
Given Magomedov was making his UFC debut after a first-round knockout on DWCS this past season, he was hesitant to call out anyone specific in the featherweight division. Instead, he said he’ll be gradually showing what he can bring to the table in the weight class the more he fights.
And if the 26-year-old has his way, that could be frequently.
“I want to be active and fight every three, four months,” Magomedov said. “The featherweight division is very interesting, but now we don’t have big names. I think I can be a new highlight. I have 11 wins, 11 finishes, and I’ve just started to show my skills and techniques.”
Check out Magomedov’s post-fight interview in the video above.
