Umar Nurmagomedov walked to the Octagon for his UFC debut in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night wearing a sheep skin wool Papakha hat, a trademark accessory of his Dagestani cousin. But this was no Khabib Nurmagomedov tribute act. With the retired UFC lightweight champ in his corner, the 24-year-old Umar submitted Sergey Morozov at 3:39 of round two on the UFC Fight Island 8 prelims, to stay perfect at 13-0 and officially announce himself as a threat to the bantamweight division. “Happy,” was the only word he could muster through heavy breaths in response to UFC analyst Daniel Cormier’s first post-fight question. But Khabib (29-0) translated his answer next time around. Put him to sleep @UmarNmgdv locked up the choke at #UFCFightIsland8 pic.twitter.com/FgHcjhEf1Y — ESPN MMA (@espnmma) January 20, 2021 “He talk about me, nine years ago this day, January 20, 2012, I beat my opponent like this, with this choke, and today he did this. But I did in third round, he did in second round, you know,” Khabib said. Indeed, “The Eagle” submitted Kamal Shalorus at 2:08 of the final round at UFC on Fox 1, also on his promotional debut. “Congrats Umar, you did it better than Khabib,” responded retired former two-weight champ Cormier, a teammate of both men at American Kickboxing Academy. ONE’s Meng says she‘ll ’surpass’ UFC’s Zhang; can beat her again More of a striker than a wrestler, Umar – a former star of the Gorilla Fighting Championship promotion in Russia, which Khabib bought last month and aptly renamed Eagle Fighting Championship – showed how he has rounded out his ground game at the start of the opening round. He threw in a beautiful level change after a couple of minutes and applied the backpack, but Morozov kept moving and never settled, with a great scramble getting the Kazakhstani back to his feet. Umar then hurt Morozov straight off the front foot at the start off the second, firing off another beautiful head kick with plenty of whip on it. Exactly nine years after @TeamKhabib 's UFC debut, his cousin @UmarNmgdv made his own UFC debut and one-upped The Eagle #UFCFightIsland8 pic.twitter.com/slLu8zuO2T — ESPN MMA (@espnmma) January 20, 2021 Morozov was able to clear the cobwebs but Umar was dipping underneath every time his opponent threw, showing his seamless transitions to wrestling. He applied the backpack again, but was able to keep advancing his position this time, despite Morozov again scrambling. Umar was chasing the neck and finally got under the chin on the ground by the fence, with Morozov going to sleep. It was a fifth rear-naked choke victory for Umar, and there was a hug from his 32-year-old cousin and a handshake from Cormier, who was laughing and joking with his good friend Khabib at the side of the Octagon while Bruce Buffer waited to announce Umar as the winner. “All my hard work has paid off. I have a lot of work ahead. I have to keep working,” Umar said backstage. “ At the beginning of the fight, I didn’t know where I was. It was a bit hard to find my way. In the second round I was more relaxed and I found my way. “This is not my best performance. In the future I’m going to show everything I have. I have much more than what I showed tonight. I’m going to go home and enjoy time with my family and my daughter.”