The unbeaten cousin of Ultimate Fighting Championship great Khabib
Nurmagomedov is getting the toughest test in his young
career.

Per the UFC’s broadcast partner of ESPN
on Thursday, Umar
Nurmagomedov (13-0) has his second UFC outing booked. At

UFC 272 on March 5 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas,
Nurmagomedov will take on Brian
Kelleher (24-12) in the bantamweight division. Kelleher
confirmed the pairing shortly after its announcement via his

Instagram Stories page, while also noting that he has a new
four-fight deal with the organization.

Nurmagomedov surged into the organization with an unbeaten record
of 12-0, which included a pair of victories on the Professional Fighters League roster, to match
up against Sergey
Morozov at the beginning of 2021. There, the Dagestan native
cruised through the fight before locking down a rear-naked choke
that put his foe to sleep in the second round. With submissions his
preferred method of victory, all but one in his career have come
via rear-naked choke.

“Boom” Kelleher will come into this battle with momentum of a
two-fight win streak behind him. In August 2021, Kelleher bounced
back from defeat to take a unanimous decision over Domingo
Pilarte. In January, he faced Kevin Croom
on short notice, and ultimately won out on the scorecards. Through
a career that has seen him amass a finish rate of 75%, Kelleher has
topped names including Renan Barao,
Julio
Arce twice and Iuri
Alcantara over the years. Since Nurmagomedov’s last appearance
in January 2021, Kelleher has stepped into the Octagon three
times.

UFC 272 will go down on March 5 inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las
Vegas, in a rare pay-per-view with no championship on the line.
Capping off the card will be a welterweight grudge match pitting
ex-title challengers against one another when Colby
Covington takes on Jorge
Masvidal. Other bouts on the main card include a strawweight
tilt pitting Marina
Rodriguez against Xiaonan Yan,
and a featherweight stylistic clash between Edson
Barboza and Bryce
Mitchell.