It wasn’t secret heading into UFC on 254 that there was no animosity between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje. After all, the two men share the same manager and know each other on a somewhat personal level.
Well, it seems Nurmagomedov took this into account during his second-round submission win over Gaethje in this past Saturday’s main event.
On Monday, Khabib’s teammate and friend, Daniel Cormier, shared a heck of a story on his “DC and Helwani” show. According to DC, Khabib was well aware of two things: Gaethje said all week that he would not tap and that Gaethje’s parents would be sitting cageside for their son’s big moment.
So with that in mind, listen to this (via Twitter):
You need to hear the reason @TeamKhabib switched from the armbar to a triangle against Justin Gaethje at #UFC254
(via @dc_mma) pic.twitter.com/jjCXgm3r3e
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 26, 2020
“He goes, ‘I didn’t want to hurt him in front of his parents, so I said I’m going to go and put him in a triangle. And if he goes to sleep, he goes to sleep, you wake up, you’re fine.’ This is exactly what he told me. That’s crazy, right? He did not want to hurt Justin in front of his parents. To be comfortable enough to think about this in the moment, that’s crazy. He didn’t want to break his arm. Because if Justin’s not going to tap, you have to break it. And he did not want to do that to Justin in front of his mom and dad.”
How incredible is that?
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