Khabib Nurmagomedov became famous thanks to his ability to impose a grappling heavy style on his opponents, tie them up and deliver damage. Thanks to mastering this skill, Nurmagomedov was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier this year. While Nurmagomedov is currently retired, he was a force to be reckoned with while he was active.
There’s a lot of talk about refereeing in the UFC. On top of uneven standards akin to what transpired between Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman there’s also the fact that referees often don’t make timely judgments in situations making athletes take unnecessary damage.
One such video went viral recently.
In the video, Khabib Nurmagomedov took down Thiago Tavares at UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping. The video demonstrates perfectly why he was renowned for his vicious ground and pound game.
Khabib was climbing the ladder, building a reputation for himself, and methodically defeating everyone. He would put on a display of how to gradually wear out an opponent on the mat in seven consecutive victories before defeating Al Iaquinta to capture the title.
In one of the most dominating runs to a title of all time, Khabib won two of these seven bouts by KO/TKO, four by unanimous decision, and one via submission.
Over all of these specific bouts, the first one against Tavares perhaps takes the prize.
The Eagle was savage, as seen in a recent post on Reddit captioned:
“Seventeen more elbows and I’m gonna have to start thinking of doing something.”
Seventeen more elbows and I’m gonna have to start thinking of doing something
by inufc
In the aforementioned footage, Khabib hits Tavares with 13 consecutive elbows, and the caption essentially criticizes the referee for failing to intervene and wrap up the event sooner than necessary.
Eventually, a combination of punches and an absurd number of powerful elbows would give Khabib the knockout victory against Tavares.
The even more absurd aspect of the situation is that Tavares cannot protect himself and cannot flee since Khabib has both of his arms caught in his legs.
The match should have been halted sooner than it was since the Brazilian made no effort to counter any of the Russian’s crushing hits.
Khabib held the UFC lightweight title for the longest reign in division history, three years. He held it from 2018 to 2021. He remained unbeaten in his career.
He eventually relinquished the championship after retiring.