“He had respect for me” Charles Oliveira addresses Khabib Nurmagomedov’s appreciation of him in UFC 280 octagon interview

Khabib Nurmagomedov is an inspiration for aspiring MMA fighters, who retired undefeated while vacating his UFC lightweight title after his father’s death. Dagstani holds a solid record of 29 straight wins in his professional MMA career, in which Khabib was never even defeated once.

#OnThisDay 2 years ago, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑬𝒂𝒈𝒍𝒆 took his last flight in the Octagon 🦅🏆

[ @TeamKhabib 📺 Watch #UFC254 and more on @UFCFightPass ] pic.twitter.com/qWUp3CVl4r

— UFC (@ufc) October 24, 2022

Though Khabib retired from mixed martial arts, he can still be seen in the corner of the octagon when his teammates fight. Last time, the Russian legend was seen in the corner, supporting his teammate Islam Makhachev at the main event of UFC 280. Islam won the bout in a very convincing way via a second-round submission at 03:16 against the Brazilian Charles Oliveira. 

Charles Oliveira was the former champion in the lightweight division but got stripped of his title because of his failure in the weight test against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274 even though Do Bronx won the bout. Oliveira currently holds the record with 33 victories from 43 professional MMA fights.

Watch @MakhachevMMA's corner react to his title winning submission at #UFC280 🎥 pic.twitter.com/J7p61nPFfy

— UFC (@ufc) October 24, 2022

Lately, there has been some beef happening between Islam’s team and Oliveira’s team. Even Islam’s mentor, Khabib, participated in the trash-talking. Speaking in the post-match press conference, Oliveira stated everything has been resolved as the UFC hall of Famer admitted that everything has been done to promote the event, which is basically part of the job. 

“This is a sport that we know exactly what it’s all about and we actually have to promote fights. And this is what we did. This is exactly what we did. And we understand the things we have to do to promote them. He came up to me and just basically said that everything was just promoting the fight, that he had respect for me.”

These kind words from the longest-reigning UFC lightweight champion increased respect for him in Oliveira’s eyes. At the same press conference, Do Bronx stated:

“And I mean, he is a great champion. He has had an amazing journey in the sport. And now he has a great champion next to him. And all he was doing was basically saying that he respects me and that it was all part of the game, and that’s what it is.”