MMA fandom was shaken to the core earlier this month when it was revealed Khabib Nurmagomedov wouldn’t be cornering Islam Makhachev at UFC 284 and he would be withdrawing from the MMA community.
Nurmagomedov shared a post on his own social media confirming the reporting and shared he had told his trainees at a New Year’s meeting about the new changes.
Media started scrambling to get the inside word on what happened at the infamous meeting but there was very little clarification beyond Umar Nurmagomedov saying he doesn’t believe it’s final, and Javier Mendez and others applauding Khabib’s choice to spend more time with his family.
However a youtube channel secured an interview with Khabib insider Shamil Zavurov. Zavurov is also known as ‘Lion of Dagestan’ and as an extensive MMA record at age 38 consisting of 40 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw.
Zavurov told Ушатайка
“Khabib just gathered the guys, explained to them that, for example, last year he did not miss a single meeting with the guys.”
“He went to the training camp, to their competitions. Well, we have a big team there. Islam is being trained, then Usman, then Umar, then Tagir, then Zubo.”
“Well, the guys are constantly in training camps. And he looked at it, weighed it, and for a year he was only at home for two or three months.”
“The rest of the time he had trips, competitions with everyone, training. Everyone has the first stage of training, the second stage of training, training.”
“They are not one or two days, they are a month, two or three weeks with them.”
“He thought about it, sat down so that the guys would not be offended. He said to the guys, well, all the athletes who already exist have already achieved great results.”
“The main thing is that the guys should not be offended. One will go, the other will not go. He said, I can’t go with you.”
“I did it before, in the training camp, training. Well, he explained to the guys so neatly that there is a family, you need to spend time with your family.”
“Therefore, he also explained to the guys that we have a team, nothing has changed, we will help each other, support each other in the same way.”
“Just Khabib will stop constantly traveling with them, staying with them all the time. They will spend a little more time with their families.”
“In general, in one word, there is no leaving the MMA industry with the ends, I quoted this news, of course, there is no such thing.”