Khabib Nurmagomedov retired from mixed martial arts in 2020 as a phenom of the sport, undefeated, and not a scratch on him. He was so dominant that he would openly announce his gameplan to his opponents before fights, and they could still not stop his cruel and suffocating wrestling.
None of his fights won the FOTN award as he would never allow the opposition to even put up a fight. As he was going up the rankings, he came across the revered kickboxer Edson Barboza, whom he absolutely cruised through. It was one of his most dominant showings.
Khabib Nurmagomedov reflects on Edson Barboza bout
Khabib, in his fight against Barboza at UFC 219, showed an untouchable aspect to himself that truly sent chills down the lightweight division’s spine. Edson could not present any danger to Khabib, as he was not only neutralizing the entirety of his offence but also comfortably eating two of his most deadly kicks and keeping on the pressure as if nothing happened.
The fight turned out to be a nightmare for Barboza and he lost a pitiful decision to Nurmagomedov. Years after retiring from the sport, Khabib recently recalled this fight in an interview and reflected on the fact that he was dominating Barboza so bad that he even took out some time of the fight as he was on top of Barboza.
‘The Eagle’ was against the fence to reply to the opponent’s coaches when they were screaming advice at Edson, and tell them straight how they can do nothing about him demolishing their guy. This wasn’t the only fight where Nurmagomedov casually had conversations during his fights, as that was a staple in most of his fearsome showings, like against McGregor, and Michael Johnson.
Looking at Khabib Nurmagomedov’s impressive title run
Khabib Nurmagomedov left the sport as one of the greatest of all time. Many other greats like Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, Georges-St-Pierre, and more, have etched their name in the history books but none of them showed such absence of vulnerability in their game like Khabib did. No one in his entire career could pose a threat to the Dagestani wrestler.
Nurmagomedov captured the lightweight title against Al Iaquinta in April of 2018, and reigned until March of 2021, with 29 wins and no losses, and as the longest-reigning UFC lightweight champion in the history. He defended his title three times by destroying Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Justin Gaethje consecutively, and then put a stop to his reign himself, as no one else could.
‘The Eagle’ is the pioneer behind opening an entire nation in Dagestan for mixed martial arts, with the UFC now abundant with Dagestani talent. Khabib Nurmagomedov will always have one of the top slots of the history books.
