Last weekend Khabib Nurmagomedov defended his UFC lightweight title by choking his challenger, Justin Gaethje, out cold. After the win, which took the Dagestani’s record to 29-0, Nurmagomedov announced that he would be retiring from the sport.
If ‘The Eagle’ has truly left MMA for good, many are left ruing that they never got to see Nurmagomedov take on Tony Ferguson, a fight that had been booked five times but then cancelled for a myriad of reasons.
Most recently, the match-up was nixed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. That world event kept Nurmagomedov stuck in Russia, with Gaethje filling in to fight Ferguson at UFC 249 in May.