Khabib Nurmagomedov is the best lightweight, perhaps the greatest fighter on the planet. However, after his brutally businesslike dispatching of title challenger Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, Khabib is gone, retired, resolving to ride off into the sunset with his 29-0 career record at just 32-years-old. We all know that means: it is time to argue beyond the here and now, as few can resist the noxious seduction of the “greatest of all time” argument.
With Gaethje just having woken up from his triangle choke-induced nap and Nurmagomedov barely having taken his gloves off – the universal portent of prizefighting – the MMA world was alight with the kind of conversation we have whenever great athletes achieve a new level of grandeur or when they retire.