Could we see Khabib Nurmagomedov return to the octagon?
Khabib retired five years ago, with his final fight being against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. Many have dubbed him as one of the greatest to step into the ring, despite having a rather short title run. Fans will go back to his memorable feud with Conor McGregor, but Khabib’s performances against Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and Edson Barboza really highlighted just how talented of an athlete he truly is.
Khabib retired very young due to a promise he made to his father. Usually, fighters often walk back their retirement years (or in Jon Jones’ case, two weeks) later, but Khabib is genuinely happy about never putting on a pair of gloves again. So when he was asked about a possible return, he explained on the Hustle Show that a comeback is unlikely (Transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting)
“No, two to three months wouldn’t be enough. ... I’ll be 37 in two months, in September. If we’re talking purely hypothetically, right? If we’re being honest, it would take at least six months. Because when you’re getting in shape—sometimes people make this mistake—here’s what happens, you look at this: ‘This fighter’s in good shape ahead of the fight.’ But that doesn’t mean anything. How he looks means nothing.
“What matters most is how many sparring rounds he’s done and who he sparred with. Everything else, lifting, fitness, running, it means nothing. How much you lifted, how much you benched, out sport isn’t about running, bodybuilding, fitness, CrossFit, none of that. Our sport is you step in one on one, get in your stance, and you fight.”
For Khabib, he has to be completely locked in to step back into the octagon, and that’s not something you can do overnight.
“You can’t just say, ‘Give me six months, I’ll be ready,’” Nurmagomedov said. “No. To get into fight shape, to get back to your old form, you need a lot of time. But back when I was still fighting, before I retired, I trained regularly too and that was enough for me. It worked. If I was given a fight, boom, in 100 days I’d shut everything off. Completely. No traveling, no meetings, no business contracts. I didn’t touch anything. I told them, ‘Don’t bother me.’ I trained morning and night, morning and night, morning and night, resting only Sundays.
“If I missed even one of those two-a-day sessions, like I said earlier, I’d get a panic attack, because I knew I had to fight and it felt out of control. Like I wasn’t ready. Like that cage door was about to shut on me.”