I saw on Twitter that this past Sunday, October 24, was the one year anniversary of the retirement of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Khabib is one of my personal favorites, so I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on his career and maybe a little bit of what has happened since he left. I remember Khabib's last fight very well. If you haven't seen the posts where I mentioned it in passing or read the "About Me" section or if you're just new here, I am still in college. I won't say where, but last October, the university that I was at was still doing all virtual classes to due COVID-19. I'm no longer at that university, but due to the online nature, we were given a take-home exam that we had to complete over a 24 hour window at some point during the weekend. I wanted to do it Friday because the Khabib vs Justin Gaethje fight was the next day and I just wanted to get it over with. It turns out that my biochemistry professor was absolutely ruthless and what he interpreted as an exam that should take us an hour to complete, was more along the lines of an 8-12 hour experience. All of this to say that I was still working on and double checking a biochemistry midterm in between fights for that entire card, which is something I think I will remember for a long time. Anyways, what we all saw was one of Khabib's best performances in what would be his last fight in the UFC, barring a change of heart sometime in the future. Whether Khabib is the GOAT or not is a different conversation for a different day, which I'll probably try to break down at some point, but that's not why I'm here today. Khabib, despite having a style that generally isn't viewed as fan friendly, was always entertaining and exciting to watch, at least for me. There's something about the fact that everyone in the arena knew exactly what he was going to do and his opponent still couldn't do anything to stop it, that was so captivating for me as a fan. When I saw all of the activity on Twitter, I wanted to go back and take a look at his career.
I know I said this wasn't going to be a GOAT conversation, but I do want to make this one comparison. The core of Khabib's argument is his pure dominance in almost every round of his entire career. However, I think when people think of dominance, they subconsciously associate that with dominance over everyone and that's not really the case with Khabib. He won the title and only had 3 defenses, which were the 3 biggest fights of his career and then he walked away. He didn't dominate the way Jon Jones dominated the light heavyweight division for so many years. Jon dominated in that he won every fight and he stepped into the cage against virtually every top contender he could have over that time. Jon didn't necessarily dominate the fight, as evidence by his split decision wins, being pushed to the limit by Gustafsson, and tough battles with Daniel Cormier, but Jon did win all of them and did that against every contender in his weight class over an extended reign. Khabib doesn't have that, but his domination came within the context of the fights themselves. Khabib physically dominated his opponents in almost every single round of his career in a way that we've never really seen before and likely won't ever see again. He defeated Al Iaquinta for the vacant title before the spectacle that was his first defense against Conor McGregor. He went on to get submission wins over Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje before calling it a career. Dominant wins are one thing, but dominant wins over the top contenders including one former champion and potentially a future champion is another.
What really made me a fan of Khabib is the way he paired his dominant performances with a relatively quiet and reserved personality. He was someone who was more like me. While fighters who are brash and loud are really fun (yes, I like Conor and Chael too guys), they weren't really relatable to me. Khabib being a quiet guy who only showed up when it was his time to fight was something that really appealed to me because I felt like I had things in common with him. He was so down to Earth and cared about the integrity of the sport and had his dad as his head coach and trained with people he grew up with. Being able to train with your family then go do your job before just going back home and being yourself is everything I am still working towards (not training to fight, but still) and Khabib is an example of that success to me without having to be someone you're not.
As for the state of the division without Khabib, I think it misses him. How could it not? That's not to say lightweight isn't doing well because it most definitely is. It has some of the biggest stars and toughest fights on the roster. Charles Oliveira is a great story and I'm glad he finally got his chance at UFC gold. There's the aforementioned Poirier and Gaethje to go along with Michael Chandler, Dan Hooker, Tony Ferguson, and rising contenders Beneil Dariush and Islam Makhachev in addition to former champions Conor McGregor and Rafael Dos Anjos. I just think that having Khabib leave the division without having a long reign sort of takes away the mystique of the division a little bit. He didn't reign over the division for a long time and didn't have someone take his belt away. I think this has left some people with the feeling that whoever has the belt isn't the "real" champion because Khabib either has or likely would beat them if they fought today. I think that is unfortunate for Charles Oliveira and whoever holds the title in the next few years because they didn't do anything wrong to have their legacy diminished.
With all that said, regardless of where he ranks on your list of personal favorites, I think everyone misses Khabib in some way. Whether you wanted him to win or rooted for him to lose, he was always a big fight and with his undefeated record on the line, there was always tension and high stakes. This post wasn't really designed to debate his legacy per se, even though that sort of just happens every time Khabib is brought up these days. It was really just my way of remembering him and his last fight that has a particularly unique place in my memory. I haven't posted about Khabib yet and when I saw his name in the news cycle, I figured this was my opportunity to do so. Thanks Khabib for all the great fights and memories. You definitely won't be forgotten any time soon. Enjoy your retirement and maybe it wasn't goodbye and just a "see you later?" Who knows?
What do you guys think? What is your favorite Khabib memory? Favorite Khabib fight? Is he your GOAT? If not, who do you have above him? Haven't got a lot of activity in the comments, but I will respond to all of them and I'll also follow back on Twitter. Really trying to get things going and have some good interactions with you guys. Thanks for reading.
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