Issue 194
January 2021
UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov indicated that he doesn’t see himself returning to competition any time soon.
Nurmagomedov and UFC President Dana White held discussions last week about his fighting future and White announced on UFC on ABC 1 that Nurmagomedov could come out of retirement if something spectacular happened in this weekend’s lightweight fights at UFC 257 between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, or Dan Hooker vs. Michael Chandler.
However, it appears Nurmagomedov isn’t rushing back into fighting as he doesn’t see any opponents that interest him at this time.
“There must be some motivation, some hunger,” said Nurmagomedov in an interview with Russian media.
“If you’re not hungry, you know, I’ve been in sports for so many years. I’ve been doing it all my life. I have achieved almost everything in this sport, and there isn’t someone who I would like to fight now.
“I know that there are many fighters who would like to earn money, who strive for something. What should I do? A lot of people don’t want to understand my side. I don’t see that yet.”
Instead, Nurmagomedov’s interests seem to be more focused on his business ventures. Recently, he acquired his own fight promotion – buying Russia-based banner Gorilla Fighting Championships and relaunched it as Eagle Fighting Championships.
However, “The Eagle” says he still loves training and will continue to do so alongside his long-time teammates in Dagestan.
“If we talk about all my business projects, I have so much to do that is planned. And fights are not in these plans,” said Nurmagomedov.
“I train for myself. The biggest thing that gives me pleasure is training.
“I enjoy when I wrestle, run, spar, work on pads, when I work on the punch bags. This is what I have been doing all my life, and I will continue to train constantly, as well. But if we talk about the fights, they are not a part of my plans.”
Despite this, Nurmagomedov didn’t completely close the door on his own MMA career in the long term.
“They constantly discuss, ‘He will come back, he will not come back,'” he said. “You know, today we have 2021. A year ago it was 2020. The same time, January, and so much has happened. We don’t know what will happen in 2022, 2023, you know, so let’s not talk about it. No one knows what will happen tomorrow.
“I don’t even have any plans for the UFC in the near future. I don’t have any thoughts about preparing for the fight.”
Nurmagomedov then doubled down on those comments in an interview with Megan Olivi, where he explained that there was never a moment where he considered going back on his retirement plans.
White and the UFC made Nurmagomedov’s retirement official, but the Dagestan combat sambo specialist said that it was set in stone as soon as he announced his decision back in October.
“Dana called this official, but I retired like four, six months ago,” Nurmagomedov told Megan Olivi. “It’s very funny: Dana told me when he posted that someone commented saying, ‘Hey, he retired not today, he retired about five months ago,’ and I was like it’s funny.
“We had some conversations with Dana a couple of times and like two days ago we meet with him to talk like two real men. We had a very good conversation with them, good dinner, and I really appreciated him not only for me, but all the sport.”
His decision to retire came following the tragic passing of his father and mentor Abdulmanap last year.
In his retirement speech, Nurmagomedov said that he had promised to his mother that he would not fight beyond his Gaethje bout and will not attempt to reach that 30-0 perfect record his dad and he had earmarked as a career landmark.
Nurmagomedov says that has the biggest bearing on his decision to hang up his four-ounce gloves and he is not motivated at the thought of fighting any of the UFC’s biggest names for a bumper payday.
“It’s very hard when you have power, when you’re the best in the world, when you’re famous, have money and say to everything like this, ‘No,'” Nurmagomedov said. “It’s very hard. People maybe will never understand me, but I really hope they’re going to support my decision because everyone has their views.
“My view and my relationship with my mother, I feel like I have to stop because I feel like in every fight, every training camp, this takes some age away from my mother. And it’s like what do I have to do? I came to this sport to show who I am and became the best, I’m world champion, and pound-for-pound No. 1. I defended my title three times. I defended my title in biggest fight of UFC history. What else? Only money fights, but I don’t need money.”
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