Song Yadong's team scripted the exact uppercut KO that stunned Nurmagomedov in Shanghai

Yadong Song stopped Umar Nurmagomedov in the second round of the UFC Shanghai main event on 29 August 2026 with an uppercut his corner had identified and rehearsed weeks before fight night — a finish that plants the Chinese bantamweight firmly in UFC title contention.

Song’s boxing coach, Rudy Hernandez, told him the knockout would come exactly that way. “My boxing coach, Rudy Hernandez, he already told me, ‘You gonna get the knockout tonight with uppercut,’” Song said in his post-fight interview. “We’ve been working on that. We know he gonna shoot from the left side and we find the uppercut.”

The preparation was surgical. Song’s team studied Nurmagomedov’s habit of dipping his head to the left when shooting for takedowns and built a counter sequence around that tendency. When the moment arrived in the second round, Song executed it precisely as planned, handing the previously unbeaten Nurmagomedov the most significant loss of his career.

The victory is the biggest of Song’s UFC tenure and reopens conversations about rematches with fighters who had previously beaten him on the scorecards. Song was direct about his ambitions, calling his shot at the entire top of the bantamweight division.

“I feel like I can finish everyone,” Song said. “I can finish Petr. I can finish Merab. Even Sean’s fight is very close — if a rematch, I can finish him too.”

Current champion Petr Yan outpointed Song in a previous meeting, as did former champion Sean O’Malley. Song also named Merab Dvalishvili as a fight he welcomes. Whether the UFC moves him directly into a title shot or routes him through one of those rematches, his performance in Shanghai has made the bantamweight picture considerably more complicated.