The undefeated light heavyweight is one of five bout casualties in a fight week that has seen the New York State Athletic Commission decline multiple fighters. Nurmagomedov posted the confirmation himself from New York, where he is cornering his cousin’s title defence on Friday.
Khabib Nabiev is off Friday’s PFL New York card. The undefeated light heavyweight’s bout against Jamelle Jones was cancelled after the New York State Athletic Commission declined to sanction Jones, and the confirmation came from the most prominent voice in Nabiev’s corner.
“Unfortunately, the @khabib_nabiev fight broke down,” Khabib Nurmagomedov wrote on his Instagram Stories. “The New York Commission did not allow his opponent to fight. What happened to him is not clear.”
Nurmagomedov is in New York this week ahead of Friday’s card at UBS Arena, where his cousin Usman Nurmagomedov headlines in defence of the PFL lightweight title against Archie Colgan. Nabiev, who trains under the Nurmagomedov camp, was one of several fighters from the Dagestani team scheduled to compete on the same night. He no longer is.
The cancellation was not an isolated event. PFL New York has lost five matchups in total across fight week, with the commission’s pre-fight checks producing a series of scratches that have reshaped the card’s undercard.
The most prominent casualty was the light heavyweight bout between 2024 PFL season champion Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov and England’s Simeon Powell, which had been positioned as the final fight before the headliners. The NYSAC refused to sanction Powell due to a past surgery. Powell addressed the cancellation in an Instagram video.
“It’s one of those ones that’s out of my control,” Powell said. “It’s annoying, but we’ve just got to keep moving.”
Zacharia Nishimwe was also pulled from his scheduled bout against Moustapha Diakhate. The promotion worked through numerous replacement options before securing NYSAC approval for a substitute to keep Diakhate on the card, per reporting from MMA Matchmaker. The specifics of each individual scratch have not been uniformly disclosed. Commissions do not typically issue detailed public explanations for licensing decisions, and the NYSAC has not commented on the cumulative pattern.
For Nabiev, the practical consequences are the ones that always accompany a late scratch. A training camp completed. A fight purse deferred. A record that stays at 12-0 for longer than planned. The 15-8 Jones matchup was positioned as the sort of low-key checkpoint that prospects use to graduate from curiosity to commodity, and it has now been absorbed into the general churn of the light heavyweight division.
Nabiev’s résumé has accumulated largely outside the main current of American MMA coverage. He has competed under the UAE Warriors banner and under Eagle FC, the promotion Nurmagomedov owns. His 12-0 record has been built at a steady clip across the regional circuits that feed the Dagestani pipeline, and his affiliation with the Nurmagomedov camp has been the most visible line on his profile. The cancellation, in a small irony, has produced more mainstream coverage of Nabiev this week than any of his twelve wins did.
Whether the Jones bout is rebooked at a future PFL card, or whether Nabiev is rebooked against a different opponent entirely, has not been announced. The promotion’s calendar continues with PFL Charlotte on August 7 and PFL Tampa on August 22, both of which offer plausible landing spots for a rescheduled bout if the matchmaking desk moves quickly.
The rest of Friday’s card proceeds as scheduled. Usman Nurmagomedov versus Colgan headlines, with Dakota Ditcheva against Denise Kielholtz in the co-main event. The main card airs on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET, with prelims on the ESPN App from 4 p.m. ET.
For the Nurmagomedov camp, the week now carries one fewer assignment and the same headline stakes. For Nabiev, the 12-0 stays put. So does the fighter. The next booking, whenever it lands, will carry the small additional weight of an audience that now knows his name.
