MMA fandom was rocked to the core earlier yesterday when reports of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement from the sport of MMA surfaced. Nurmagomedov retired from training in 2020 – however he was still active as a coach and a promoter.
This was all set to change in 2023 when Khabib revealed plans to dedicate more of his time to his family and business ventures.
The result was hilarious. Fanboys online were so upset as to infer they knew what Khabib’s father would’ve wanted better than Khabib himself.
But the things went from bad to worse – it has since been confirmed that Nurmagomedov plans to miss Makhachev’s first title defense at UFC 284 in Australia.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager Rizvan Magomedov told Match TV that Nurmagomedov won’t be cornering Makhachev in Perth.
– Will Khabib be in the corner of Islam Makhachev?
– I think he made it clear and it was such a balanced decision that he approached for a long time. There is no need to look for any behind-the-scenes reasons or radical incidents there. He just came to this. He ended his career in 2020 but travels during training camps, during fights. Out of 12 months, he is 10 absent from home, constantly on these trips. And he came to such a decision that it was time to spend time with his family, devote time to children. And, most likely, he will miss this fight, yes, – Magomedov told Match TV.
According to Russian reporter Igor Lazorin, Nurmagomedov might be completely and irrevocably done with MMA.
Lazorin published a post on his telegram outlining his insights into the Dagestani MMA champion:
“Khabib Nurmagomedov will leave MMA completely and irrevocably. People started talking about this after his post about summing up the results of the year, where he wrote “about a difficult decision.”
It is a “tough decision” to reduce one’s own participation in MMA. Here we are talking about coaching, about participating in training camps, and about attending almost all tournaments. I think that Khabib was simply tired and realized that it is very energy-consuming and hard to be everywhere. It’s hard and emotional. Yes, I think that he will no longer train anyone. But occasionally he will train with the team – this is his life, it is necessary to keep fit.
Will he sell EFC? I don’t think. Now his constant participation in the affairs of the league is not required, it is managed by other people. He will also be able to attend tournaments, but perhaps less often than before. I think Khabib will focus on his family and other non-MMA businesses.”
Lazorin’s inquiry was prompted by Nurmagomedov’s recent posting on Instagram in which he said:
“Concluding the year.
The year certainly turned out to be a very busy and successful.
Take care of yourself brothers 🤝
I hope my decision is only for the best, a big hug to you all об
Thank you, you were a big reason for my success in sports.”
Nurmagomedov also shared the reports of his withdrawal from MMA on his instagram stories, seemingly confirming the reports.
