UFC veteran Khabib Nurmagomedov still has trains mixed martial arts. Recently he dominated former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold in a grappling session.
Luke Rockhold will return after being inactive for around 3 years. The Californian won the UFC middleweight championship in 2015, but failed to defend it against Michael Bisping the following year. Since then, he went 2-1 with the loss being a light heavyweight debut against Jan Blachowicz back in 2019.
Luke Rockhold will return to the octagon to face Paulo Costa in a middleweight bout at UFC 278. The event is expected to take place in Salt Lake city on August 20. Prior to his return, Rockhold had a sparring session with grappling phenom Khabib Nurmafomedov.
Part of their training session is recorded and shared to social media. In the video, Khabib can be seen controlling the fight. He pinned Rockhold on the mattress and hilariously chased Rockhold when he tried to escape the sparring session.
“If Sambo was easy, it’d be called Luke Rockhold. It’s okay. Ask Luke (Rockhold) what happened today. I just miss you, I hug you brother.” Khabib joked in the video.
Luke Rockhold is also known to be a skilled grappler. He won 8 of his 16 professional bouts via submission. He is also a gold medalist in Brazilian jiu jitsu back in 2007.
Meanwhile, Khabib Nurmagomedov retired with a clean score of 29-0. ‘The Eagle’ has always dominated his opponents and has only lost two rounds in the UFC. Khabib left the UFC in 2020 following the death of his father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
Though, he is still involved in MMA stuff after his retirement. He is now training many Dagestan athlete, with the most famous one being UFC lightweight contender Islam Makhachev. Khabib is also focusing his career as a promoter of Eagle FC, his very own MMA promotion. In December 2020, he bought the Gorilla Fighting Championship (GFC) and renamed it.