Khabib Nurmagomedov believes MMA should be sport first, entertainment second — and that’s from the UFC on down.
The former lightweight champion recently discussed the current state of MMA in Dagestan based
on the success the republic has had in and out of the UFC, and was asked what’s next for that region of talent.
“I feel very bad for U.S. promotions — very, very bad,” Nurmagomedov said at the World Sports Summit. “Because there are so many hungry fighters coming, and they don’t like to talk, they don’t like trash talk. They just come, smash people, and take money. And U.S. promotions, they don’t like this. They like trash talking, they like entertainment.
“I understand. In one way, it’s business. But at end of day, this is sport. It’s sport. One-on-one, you go alone inside of cage, and we’ll see who is the best in the world.”
Of course, Nurmagomedov had an incredible career, which has carried over to other members of his team, such as current welterweight champion Islam Makhachev, and bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov.
The road for Nurmagomdov to finally get to a title shot was a long one, but at least he had a road to travel — which is something “The Eagle” is no concerned about when it comes to his young fighters trying to be the best of the best in the sport.
“A lot of young guys coming,” Nurmagomedov explained. “For example, in my gym — I have a couple of gyms in Dagestan — and there are 500 amateur guys, and they all want to be like Khabib. They all want to be champion. They all want to take over in the world, and they’re all good. What are we going to do with them? Like, how are you going to stop them?
“It’s very hard, or just not sign them. Right now, I see some promotions, they follow the politics and just don’t sign them because they’re tired. Because all Magomedov, Nurmagomedov, they jump to the UFC and take over. In the last couple of years, they changed a little bit of politics, and I don’t like this, to be honest.”
Recently, we’ve seen the UFC make some questionable roster moves that have had fans scratching their heads. Earlier this month, Rinat Fakhretdinov, who was unbeaten in the UFC over seven fights, and had a 54-second knockout victory in September, was not re-signed after fighting out his deal.
Nurmagomedov knows there’s not much he can do about it, but he feels talking about it could be a step forward to changing that narrative.
“At the end of the day, like I said, this is sport. It has to be fair,” Nurmagomedov said. “And even in the last couple of years, we saw so many fighters cut. They cut so many fighters that don’t even lose in UFC. They just finish contract, they don’t give them new contract.
“Honestly, somebody has to talk about this, and I think this is not fair. This is what I don’t like.”
