The earliest card
2025 Panini Contenders PFL #11
His first card pulled from a pack. 2025 Panini Contenders PFL, released July 18, 2025, is the first hobby product to carry PFL and Bellator fighters, and Season Ticket #11 is his base card in the 100-card set. The full Contenders ticket ladder runs behind it, topping out at Championship Ticket and Season Ticket Black 1/1s.
There is no printed rookie card. Sellers call the 2024 Panini Instant Bellator #6 his rookie; collectors who discount print-to-order Instants treat 2025 Panini Contenders PFL #11 as the first real card. Both positions are defensible and no hobby authority has designated one, so the archive records the 2025 Contenders base as the earliest significant card rather than as an RC.
Key Nurmagomedov cards
9 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Usman is the Nurmagomedov who never fought in the UFC, and the gap in his catalogue is exactly the shape of that fact. He debuted in Bellator in April 2021, took the lightweight title from Patricky Pitbull at Bellator 288 in November 2022 and defended it against Benson Henderson in March 2023, all without a licensed trading card of any kind: Bellator had no mainstream card partner in those years, and with no UFC bouts there is no Topps UFC or Panini Prizm UFC issue of him either. The first practical hazard for collectors is the surname - his brother Umar and Abubakar both have UFC-licensed runs, so any Nurmagomedov card from a UFC-branded product is not Usman.
His earliest card is 2024 Panini Instant Bellator #6, from the print-to-order programme Panini ran around the 2024 Bellator Champions Series. Instant cards are sold through a short ordering window, so the base print run is whatever collectors bought rather than a published figure, and numbered colour parallels - Blue Viper and a White Tiger /5 tier - were offered beside it. What the card commemorates is not clear; a seller describes it as his title win, which would be a November 2022 moment on a 2024 issue, and no Panini caption confirms it.
There is no rookie card in the printed sense: Panini used no RC designations anywhere in the Contenders PFL checklists, and nothing else of his carries a rookie logo. Sellers call the 2024 Instant his rookie because it is genuinely first; collectors who discount print-to-order issues start him instead at 2025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket #11, the base card from the first hobby product ever to include him. Both positions are defensible and no hobby authority has settled it.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL, out on 18 July 2025, is where his collectable run really begins - three years after he was already a world champion. Season Ticket #11 sits in the 100-card base set behind the full ticket ladder: Red /299, Playoff Ticket and Blue /199, Main Card Ticket and Green /99, Co-Main Event Ticket /49, Cracked Ice Ticket /25, Main Event Ticket and Season Ticket Gold /10, with Championship Ticket and Season Ticket Black 1/1s on top. The same product carried his first mainstream certified autograph, Season Ticket Signatures #11 from a 46-card checklist, and two inserts, Crown Jewels #13 and Supernatural #14, the latter with a Cracked Ice version numbered to 25.
Beating Paul Hughes for the inaugural PFL lightweight world title on 3 October 2025 changed his standing with Panini quickly. 2026 Panini Contenders PFL, released 5 August 2026, gives him eleven checklist slots against four the year before, including base Season Ticket #99, Season Ticket Signatures #99 from a 63-card autograph checklist with a Main Card Ticket Signature numbered /75, and Championship Moments Signatures #6 /99, a signed insert new to the product and built around title wins. Panini also opened its 2026 Instant PFL programme with him at card #1, which is about as plain a statement of where he stands as the hobby makes.
Autographs
3 certified autographs in the archive.
Card eras
He debuted in Bellator in April 2021, won the lightweight title from Patricky Pitbull at Bellator 288 in November 2022 and defended it against Benson Henderson in March 2023 — all of it without a licensed trading card. Bellator had no mainstream card partner in those years, so there is nothing to collect from the run that made his name.
Panini's print-to-order Instant program picked up Bellator for the 2024 Champions Series, and card #6 is the earliest Usman Nurmagomedov card anyone can point to. Being Instant, the base card's print run is set by orders taken during a short window, with numbered colour parallels (Blue Viper, White Tiger /5) sold alongside.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL (July 18, 2025) is the first hobby product to carry him: Season Ticket #11 in the 100-card base set, Season Ticket Signatures #11 as his first mainstream certified autograph, plus Crown Jewels #13 and Supernatural #14 inserts. Panini did not use RC logos on the set, so his 'rookie' is a matter of collector convention rather than a printed designation.
Beating Paul Hughes for the inaugural PFL world title on October 3, 2025 gave Panini a championship moment to build around, and the 2026 products lean on it hard.
Parallels of this card
Sets
Where Nurmagomedov's key cards come from.
- 20242024 Panini Instant Bellator1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL Supernatural1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL Crown Jewels1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Moments Signatures1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Instant PFL1 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures #11 — his first mainstream certified autograph, especially the Cracked Ice Ticket /25 and Main Event Ticket /10
- 022026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Moments Signatures #6 /99 — the signed PFL title card
- 032024 Panini Instant Bellator #6 in any numbered parallel (Blue Viper, White Tiger /5) — the earliest card of him that exists
- 042025 Panini Contenders PFL Supernatural #14 Cracked Ice /25
Nothing from this archive in the vault right now. Selling one?
Sources & research Verified×3High confidence×9Probable×3
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Usman Nurmagomedov's earliest card: 2025 Panini Contenders PFL #11 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
No Usman Nurmagomedov card carries a printed RC logo. The checklists for 2025 and 2026 Panini Contenders PFL (Checklist Insider, Checklist Center) show no rookie designation anywhere in the products, and because he never fought in the UFC he has no Topps UFC or Panini Prizm UFC issue to act as a rookie. His earliest card of any kind is 2024 Panini Instant Bellator #6, but that is a print-to-order commemorative sold direct by Panini rather than a pack-issued card, which is why the first card most collectors treat as his true starting point is 2025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket #11 — the base card from the first hobby product to include him, released July 18, 2025.
Usman is the Nurmagomedov who never fought in the UFC, and the gap in his catalogue is exactly the shape of that fact. He debuted in Bellator in April 2021, took the lightweight title from Patricky Pitbull at Bellator 288 in November 2022 and defended it against Benson Henderson in March 2023, all without a licensed trading card of any kind: Bellator had no mainstream card partner in those years, and with no UFC bouts there is no Topps UFC or Panini Prizm UFC issue of him either. The first practical hazard for collectors is the surname - his brother Umar and Abubakar both have UFC-licensed runs, so any Nurmagomedov card from a UFC-branded product is not Usman.
His earliest card is 2024 Panini Instant Bellator #6, from the print-to-order programme Panini ran around the 2024 Bellator Champions Series. Instant cards are sold through a short ordering window, so the base print run is whatever collectors bought rather than a published figure, and numbered colour parallels - Blue Viper and a White Tiger /5 tier - were offered beside it. What the card commemorates is not clear; a seller describes it as his title win, which would be a November 2022 moment on a 2024 issue, and no Panini caption confirms it.
There is no rookie card in the printed sense: Panini used no RC designations anywhere in the Contenders PFL checklists, and nothing else of his carries a rookie logo. Sellers call the 2024 Instant his rookie because it is genuinely first; collectors who discount print-to-order issues start him instead at 2025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket #11, the base card from the first hobby product ever to include him. Both positions are defensible and no hobby authority has settled it.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL, out on 18 July 2025, is where his collectable run really begins - three years after he was already a world champion. Season Ticket #11 sits in the 100-card base set behind the full ticket ladder: Red /299, Playoff Ticket and Blue /199, Main Card Ticket and Green /99, Co-Main Event Ticket /49, Cracked Ice Ticket /25, Main Event Ticket and Season Ticket Gold /10, with Championship Ticket and Season Ticket Black 1/1s on top. The same product carried his first mainstream certified autograph, Season Ticket Signatures #11 from a 46-card checklist, and two inserts, Crown Jewels #13 and Supernatural #14, the latter with a Cracked Ice version numbered to 25.
Beating Paul Hughes for the inaugural PFL lightweight world title on 3 October 2025 changed his standing with Panini quickly. 2026 Panini Contenders PFL, released 5 August 2026, gives him eleven checklist slots against four the year before, including base Season Ticket #99, Season Ticket Signatures #99 from a 63-card autograph checklist with a Main Card Ticket Signature numbered /75, and Championship Moments Signatures #6 /99, a signed insert new to the product and built around title wins. Panini also opened its 2026 Instant PFL programme with him at card #1, which is about as plain a statement of where he stands as the hobby makes.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL #11 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
2024 Panini Instant Bellator #6 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures #11 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
- Checklist Insider2025 Panini Contenders PFL Checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- Checklist Center2025 Panini Contenders PFL - MMA Card Checklist, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProUsman Nurmagomedov [Blue Season Ticket Signature] #11 — 2025 Panini Contenders PFL, accessed September 22, 2026
2025 Panini Contenders PFL Supernatural #14 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
- Checklist Insider2025 Panini Contenders PFL Checklist, accessed September 21, 2026
- Checklist Center2025 Panini Contenders PFL - MMA Card Checklist, accessed September 22, 2026
- SportsCardsProUsman Nurmagomedov [Cracked Ice] #14 /25 — 2025 Panini Contenders PFL Supernatural, accessed September 22, 2026
2025 Panini Contenders PFL Crown Jewels #13 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL #99 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures #99 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Moments Signatures #6 — Usman Nurmagomedov.
2026 Panini Instant PFL #1 — Usman Nurmagomedov.