Vinicius Oliveira Accuses Umar Nurmagomedov of Ducking Him After UFC 303 Win

Vinicius Oliveira reignited his feud with Umar Nurmagomedov after a victory over Ricky Simon at UFC 303 .

Oliveira earned a unanimous decision win over Simon to start off the UFC 303 action at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday. “Lok Dog” subsequently called for a fight against Nurmagomedov, though he doesn’t expect the Dagestani to accept it.

Oliveira and Nurmagomedov have previously traded barbs on Instagram DMs following the Brazilian’s UFC debut back in March. Both fighters had claimed they would best each other in a street fight and expressed interest in a potential clash. However, Oliveira believes Nurmagomedov will be scared to fight him after watching his latest performance against Simon. Oliveira displayed excellent takedown defense against Simon, who is a seasoned grappler. Expecting Nurmagomedov to dodge him, Oliveira called for a clash against Dominick Cruz .

“I would like to fight so much against Umar Nurmagomedov . He was [using] some bad words on Instagram, on social media. But he [is] scared of me right now,” Olivieira said at a post-fight media scrum . “He must be watching my last fight here. And he know that it is not easy to put me in the ground. And [at that] exact moment he must be meet some nightmare with me. So, I think he will refuse to fight against me for the first time. So, I would like to fight against Dominick Cruz , maybe, I don’t know.”



Nurmagomedov is currently slated to meet Cory Sandhagen (17-4) in the main event at UFC Abu Dhabi on Aug. 3. The winner of the high-caliber matchup is expected to gain relevance in title talks. However, Oliveira believes Nurmagomedov will continue ducking him regardless of the outcome of that fight.

“I know that, but I think he was running away [from] me. He can [lose] this fight. He’ll keep running away [from] me,” Oliveira said. “He can win. He’ll keep running away [from] me. Because these guys have no courage to fight against me. For sure that. Believe in my words, if I fight against this guy, he won’t put me on the ground and I will put him on the ground.”

Saturday marked Oliveira’s sophomore UFC win after a flying-knee KO of Bernardo Sopai in his promotional debut. Meanwhile, Simon is on a three-fight skid.