Could Islam Makhachev take another page out of his mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov’s book and retire from the sport of MMA at his mother’s request?
Khabib infamously stepped away from fighting at just 32 years of age after his mother asked him to stop, ending his career at an impressive 29-0. Now that Islam is 34 and a double champion, it raises questions as to whether he’ll also step away from the sport early at the request of his mother.
In a new interview with Murad LaRiba, Makhachev discussed the possibility.
“This has been a conversation with my mom for many years now,” he admitted. “I remember when I won the Combat Sambo World Championship, before I had even started my professional career. My mom said, ‘That’s it, there’s no Olympics in Sambo, you’ve already won a world title. That’s enough.’ Since then, we’ve kept coming back to this topic.”
“Lately, she’s been telling me, ‘Khabib listened to his mother, but you don’t want to listen,'” he added. “I tell her that she never put the question that way. She never said, ‘Either you stop, or…’ Recently, she told me, ‘I want to meet Khabib. We need to talk.’ I asked, ‘What do you need to talk to him about?’ She said, ‘We just need to talk.’ I haven’t arranged that meeting yet.”
“But if my mom ever truly puts her foot down and insists, then of course.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov was a bit of a special case. His father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov was the fighting savant of Dagestan, so Khabib was raised under his watchful eye to become a champion from childhood. Sambo, training, and fighting was Khabib’s life for his entire life, up until the point his father died from COVID complications in July 2020. The way Khabib talks about it now, his mother didn’t so much forbid him from fighting as freed him from it.
For Islam, there’s no complicated family weight that has loomed over him for his entire life. For him, it’s really a question of when the best time is to retire. He’s 28-1. He’s held the lightweight and welterweight titles. He hasn’t lost in over 10 years. What else is there for him to do, other than eventually lose?
When you see how revered Khabib is for walking away without an ugly streak of losses at the end of his career, you realize how smart it is to leave on top. Perhaps every fighter needs a mother who understands that as well.
