Former UFC Lightweight champion has been out of the MMA scene for over two years since he retired with an undefeated record of 29-0. Although he has been coaching some of his countrymen, he recently announced taking a break from combat sports, without providing any reason.
However, on Thursday, April 6, 2023, “The Eagle” shared a video of himself running on the treadmill on his Instagram account, stating that he needs to be ready in July, but not for MMA.
The announcement has sparked curiosity among fans, who can only speculate on what the retired MMA legend has in store. Nurmagomedov has been consistent in his statements about never returning to MMA, but he has expressed interest in other opportunities that have come his way.
Despite retiring from MMA last year, Khabib Nurmagomedov remains one of the biggest names in the sport. Many fans and analysts speculate that the grappling phenom could still make a comeback to competition.
Georges St Pierre previously revealed that Dana White tried to use him to convince Khabib to unretire, but was unsuccessful.
White didn’t give up there, he reached out to Khabib again to see if he would be interested in a grappling match, but Khabib declined.
White recounted the conversation on the Jim Rome Show: “Khabib’s retired. I just reached out to him recently to see if he’s interested in something and he’s like, ‘I’m retired, brother. I’m done.’ I don’t think Khabib ever comes back. It was something different. I was trying to get him to do a grappling match. He’s like, ‘I’m done, I’m retired.’ I think that when his father passed away, that was a wrap for him. He’s just focused on training other guys and helping them become world champions.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov has been promoting a suspect cryptocurrency, lately. GMT token offers a 20% return if tokens are staked for three months, and this is a high return compared to legitimate investments that are based on the performance of the underlying asset.
Khabib has collaborated with GMT to launch an NFT collection that grants holders the computing power of 29 TH/s and a ticket to his private events. The project is tied into a clicker game with two modes: solo mining and pool mining. And there was a lot of push back when Nurmagomedov tried to promote it.
Nurmagomedov also became entangled with PSG MMA. Paris Saint-Germain CEO Nasser Al-Khelaifi, former UFC Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, and MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz are forming a new team called PSG MMA.
Nasser Al-Khelaifi has been heading Paris Saint-Germain since 2011, with a five-year plan to make PSG the best in France and beyond. Nasser also holds the position of chairman for the beIN Media group and Qatar Sports Investments. The potential collaboration between PSG and Khabib has generated excitement among MMA fans.