While most had concluded that Khabib Nurmagomedov was retired after his announcement last year, UFC president Dana White has now accepted that the lightweight champion’s career is over.
On Thursday night, White issued the following statement accompanied by a photo with the outgoing UFC lightweight champion:
29-0 it is.
He is 💯 officially retired. It was incredible to watch you work @TeamKhabib thank you for EVERYTHING and enjoy whatever is next my friend. pic.twitter.com/QeoSP12zw2
— danawhite (@danawhite) March 19, 2021
Last October, after his victory against Justin Gaethje, the 32-year old Nurmagomedov announced his retirement shortly after losing his father and stating he was respecting the wishes of his mother to move on.
He leaves the sport as the UFC lightweight champion with an undefeated record of 29-0 and headlined the largest pay-per-view in UFC history when he beat Conor McGregor in October 2018.
He won his first nine fights in the UFC beginning in January 2012 and lost two years due to injury between 2014-16. In April 2018, he won the vacant lightweight title beating Al Iaquinta on short notice at UFC 223.
At UFC 229 later that year, Nurmagomedov stopped McGregor in the third round of their championship fight. This followed one of the nastiest build-ups to a fight and culminated with a brawl after the fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
The champion fought two more times submitting Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 in September 2019 and submitting Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 last October.
Over the past few months, White has courted Nurmagomedov privately and publicly to fight one more time including the tease of a “decision” this past January as a hook for the UFC’s first event on ABC. Nurmagomedov has remained steadfast he is retired and issued the following comment on Thursday:
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