Magomed Umalatov Details Training Camp Changes Ahead of Andrey Koreshkov Fight

Having not won a title despite being one of the most highly touted Professional Fighters League welterweights, Magomed Umalatov has changed things going into his third season with the PFL.

Umalatov (14-0) was 9-0 with all stoppage wins when he started his PFL journey in 2021. Despite picking up consecutive wins over Kyron Bowen and Leandro Silva, Umalatov wasn’t featured in the playoffs that year.

“Prince” scored a knockout win over Jarrah Al-Silawi in July 2022 to earn the last playoff spot for the PFL 2022 season. However, visa issues forced Umalatov out of a scheduled booking against Rory McDonald. Umalatov scored back-to-back wins over Dilano Taylor and Nayib Lopez in PFL’s 2023 regular season but withdrew from a bout against Magomed Magomedkerimov due to undisclosed reasons.

Umalatov is now slated to start his PFL 2024 season against former Bellator MMA champ Andrey Koreshkov (27-4) at PFL 3 on April 19 (tune into ESPN and ESPN+ at 9:30 p.m. ET) Umalatov claims to have trained smarter going into this season as opposed to overtraining in the previous seasons.

“Yeah, this is my third year,” the 32-year-old said during media day. “Every year I feel I got good experience. My mistake [the] last couple years; I always over trained. For this season, I was smarter [during] training camp.”

While Koreshkov has a ton of high-level experience, Umalatov believes he has the edge over “Spartan” in terms of overall skills.

“I think I’m a more complete fighter because I [have] everything. He's just [a] good striker and that's it; that's why I'm sure I can beat him.”

After being forced out of PFL 2022 due to visa issues, Umalatov relocated to Florida where he trains at the American Top Team. ATT fighters had mammoth success last weekend, going 8-0 in the PFL 2 and UFC 300 cards combined. Umalatov hopes to bring one more belt to ATT, which is already home to champions like Johnny Eblen and Alexandre Pantoja.

“For sure, I will be very happy to bring one more belt because I trained [with] American Top Team for three years. and the manager always told me I have to bring one more belt.”