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Daniel Cormier’s loyalty to the Dagestani crew has never been some secret handshake in the dark, and UFC Shanghai just dragged that whole friendship tree back into the spotlight. After Song Yadong knocked Umar Nurmagomedov out in round two, Usman Nurmagomedov vaulted into the cage during the celebration, and the internet immediately started treating the near-collision like a crime scene with fight gloves. Cormier, who has deep American Kickboxing Academy ties with Khabib Nurmagomedov and the Nurmagomedov team, did not pretend the cage jump was fine. He also did not buy the loudest version of the outrage. On his YouTube channel, DC said Usman was trying to reach his brother after watching him get starched, not hunting Song during the victory lap. Watch Cormier’s reaction below. “He did not elbow him,” Cormier said, before adding that Usman was trying to “get to his brother.” That is the whole fight-week debate in miniature. Usman still jumped the fence, still entered a live post-fight scene, and still forced security and officials to react. But DC’s read is that this was panic and family instinct, not a calculated attack. DC Says Emotion Explains It, But Does Not Excuse It The clip that set everyone off is messy. Song is sprinting around the Octagon after the biggest win of his career, Usman is moving toward the fallen Umar, and the two paths cross at the worst possible time. A fan-posted angle of the moment spread fast because it looks wild even before anyone argues over intent. Cormier’s defense came with a warning baked in. He said Usman deserves “a bit of grace,” then made clear that fighters and corners cannot turn the Octagon into a family reunion after a knockout. The UFC already learned that lesson the hard way when Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor’s post-fight chaos became part of MMA history, and nobody needs a reboot with worse timing. The timing is also brutal for Usman. He has already been hovering around the UFC conversation while his PFL future gets sorted, and his lightweight title reign has kept him in the bigger crossover discussion since Usman Nurmagomedov defended his belt at PFL Dubai. If he wants to become the next major Nurmagomedov name in the UFC orbit, sprinting into another fighter’s celebration is not exactly a clean first impression. For Umar, the competitive fallout is even uglier. Song did not just win. He detonated the whole bantamweight queue, added another huge result after beating Deiveson Figueiredo, and gave the division a fresh argument after Sean O’Malley’s decision win over Song Yadong at UFC 324 had already shown how crowded this lane can get. Cormier can ask fans to separate emotion from intent, and that is fair. Usman can still catch heat for creating a dangerous mess in the first place, and that is fair too. The only clean winner here is Song, who left Shanghai with the knockout, the momentum, and a highlight so loud it dragged half the Nurmagomedov universe into the aftermath.