The UFC’s Shanghai card produced one of the more polarizing moments of the year, and it had nothing to do with the judges’ scorecards. When Song Yadong stopped Umar Nurmagomedov in the second round, all eyes turned to the corner, where Umar’s brother Usman broke away from his post and climbed into the Octagon.
Cameras caught him gesturing toward Yadong as though he intended to throw an elbow. No contact was made, but the gesture alone was enough to send a portion of the fanbase into a frenzy, with some calling for the undefeated free agent to face a ban from the promotion entirely.
👀 Better angle of Usman Nurmagomedov jumping the cage, running toward his brother Umar, and clashing with Song Yadong.#UFCShanghai pic.twitter.com/3kUCZQ1IEY
— Home of Fight (@Home_of_Fight) August 29, 2026
What makes the reaction notable is the contrast with how the community responded just months earlier when Sean Strickland actually climbed into a cage at a regional Tuff-N-Uff event and threw punches at a competitor.
That incident barely registered as a footnote before fading from the conversation. Usman’s brief, contact-free gesture, by comparison, has kept the internet occupied for days.
The Shanghai main event itself was a gut punch for the Nurmagomedov camp. Umar entered as a former title challenger looking to reestablish himself in the bantamweight picture, a 135 lb (61 kg) division that has chewed up and spit out contenders before.
Instead, he walked away with his second loss in his last four outings, having previously come up short against Merab Dvalishvili. Footage from ringside captured his family’s raw, emotional reaction as the stoppage was waved off, and it was in that charged atmosphere that Usman made his move toward the cage.
Daniel Cormier addressed the incident on his YouTube channel and pushed back hard against the idea that Usman meant to harm Yadong.
“He did not elbow him. Let’s stop making conspiracy theories out there people, he did not elbow him and he did not attack Song Yadong,” Cormier said.
He was careful not to excuse the breach of protocol outright, acknowledging that corners are barred from entering the cage under any circumstance. Still, he framed Usman’s sprint toward his brother as an understandable, deeply human reaction rather than a calculated act of aggression.
“What he did was try to get to his brother. Now, that in itself is not allowed,” he noted. “We are not allowed to do that. But, if there’s anyone that you care about immensely and you want to try to rush to their side in that moment, it is your brother.”
Cormier didn’t stop at defending Usman. He used the moment to argue that Umar deserves more credit than criticism for the setback. Rather than piling on an athlete who has now dropped two of his last four appearances in the lightweight-adjacent bantamweight ranks, Cormier pointed to the pressure Umar carries simply by being part of a family with such a heavy legacy in the sport.
“For as much credit as Song Yadong gets for the result, I believe that we should give credit to Umar,” he said, adding that Umar put his standing in the division on the line while constantly measuring himself against relatives who’ve already reached the sport’s summit.
Usman addressed the backlash directly, posting a statement that leaned on faith and perspective rather than apology.
“We will only suffer what is prescribed for us. In any situation, alhamdulillah,” he wrote, urging critics to put the moment into proportion given everything else happening in the world. He was pointed in denying any real intent to harm Yadong, writing, “And about the fact that I allegedly wanted to hit his opponent, if I wanted, I would have hit him.”
He closed with a sharp rebuke aimed at those piling on, framing the criticism as coming from people who don’t understand the bond between siblings. “Evil little and arrogant people, your problem is that you never had and never will have understanding and family love. If you do not know what a brother means to a brother, then you should feel sorry for you, not me.”
Set that against what unfolded at the Tuff-N-Uff event, a regional promotion far removed from the UFC spotlight. There, Strickland was cageside as a coach and spectator when his teammate Miles Hunsinger lost to Luis Hernandez. Witnesses say Hernandez turned his celebration into taunting directed at Chris Curtis, who was cornering Hunsinger.
A broadcast commentator caught the shift in real time: “I saw Sean smirk. And that is the end,” before narrating the chaos that followed. “Mustache Luis Hernandez gets it done. He’s talking to Chris Curtis and Sean… Oh wow. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.”
Strickland lunged into the cage and threw punches at Hernandez before security pulled him away.
