Khabib Nurmagomedov Would Never Return To MMA
Khabib Nurmagomedov does not miss fighting.
Nurmagomedov is one of the best lightweights of all time for a reason. He was fighting very smartly but also working very hard, which is why no one managed to beat him.
One of the interviewers asked Nurmagomedov if he misses fighting and being inside the cage.
“Honestly no [I don’t miss it],” Nurmagomedov told The Muslim Money Guys podcast.
“When I miss something like competition, I go to the gym and wrestle, grapple, train. I spend my energy there. Like comeback? Go to the cage? No, I don’t miss it.
“Because all my life, it was on my hands, not inside my heart. It was never inside my heart. Of course I like it, you have to love what you’re doing. I was a very big fan of sports because my goal was to become the best, to become the champion like everybody has to do. But when I’m finished, I’m finished.”
It is not the first time that one of the greatest fighters has said he does not like fighting.
GSP was another one who kept saying he did not like the fighting and fight day was the worst day of his life, but he loved the life it was bringing to him outside the cage.
Nurmagomedov says that fighting was not in his heart but was in his hands. He was good at it and wanted to be the best. However, now as he said, he wants to do other things and enjoy life.
“It’s easy. It’s very easy [to walk away],” Nurmagomedov said. “If it’s inside your heart, to leave this alone it’s very hard. It was inside my heart. Now finished, I go do other things.”
There are legendary fighters, former champions, who keep fighting and saying that they want this fire, but as Khabib says, they are fighting for the money, and they can not become champions anymore.
Khabib invested lots of money in different fields, like MMA promotion, MMA management agency, restaurants, and others.
He also talked about his potential comeback if Charles Oliveira wins against his fighter, Islam Makhachev, but Khabib said that there is nothing that forces him to be back.
“Nothing [would make me return],” Nurmagomedov said.
“Never. I leave this sport alone, without myself. There is always going to be some champion without my name, too. It’s going to be Charles Oliveira, it’s going to be Islam [Makhachev] or another name after Islam because Islam is not going to be there all his life. Short time, a couple of years, finished.
“This is a high-level sport. I was champion, right now I’m not champion, and this is normal. You can never be champion all like seven years, eight years. There is a couple of years, that’s your prime time. Finished, bye-bye. You can stay just to make money but you’ll never be champion.”