UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov had to battle numerous obstacles heading into the final fight of his career.
Prior to submitting Justin Gaethje in the second round of the UFC 254 headliner, it was revealed that Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) missed two weeks of camp after being diagnosed with the mumps in mid-September. UFC president Dana White also said Nurmagomedov suffered a broken foot three weeks before his fight.
That was in addition to the fact that UFC 254 was Nuamgomedov’s first fight since the death of his father and coach, Abdulmanap, earlier this year.
Speaking to Submission Radio, American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez, who trains Nurmagomedov, detailed “The Eagle’s” difficult camp and how he spent three days in the hospital.
“It took him out of two weeks of training,” Mendez said. “And he got the mumps, I guess, the day before his father’s event in Russia. So, he came here with the mumps, and he tried training a couple of days really light. But then he got so sick; he had to be hospitalized. So, he was in the hospital for three days. He comes out, and I’m like going, I’m really (expletive), man. I’m going, ‘Oh man, we’re fighting such a great warrior like Justin, and we’re already starting off on a bad foot.’ And I go, ‘This really sucks.’”
While recovering from the mumps, bad luck continued for Nurmagomedov, who then broke a toe while sparring. But the undefeated champ would not be deterred.
“So, he starts training really light one week, and then the second week we had to get some sparring in, because without sparring you don’t know where you’re at,” Mendez said. “So, we have one sparring session. He looked OK. Not how I wanted him to look, but he looked okay. And the second sparring session he was looking great, and all of a sudden midway in the second round, boom, he stops. I go, ‘What the heck happened?’ Broke his freakin’ toe. And I’m like, ‘Oh, great. Broken toe.’ Now we have to wait more time for him to heal before we can start training again.
“So that really jacked everything up. But at the end of the day, like I said, we all have things that happen in camp. This was just one of our worst for him. And the one thing he said like six days out before the event, he said, ‘Coach, my toe may be broken, but my mind is not.’ And we worked on stuff like that forever from his father. To me, when he said that ‘my mind is not (broken),’ we knew that we’re winning this fight no matter what. And in all honesty, these last sparring sessions, he looked fantastic.”
Nurmagomedov used his pressure early, going right at Gaethje, who attempted to stifle his movement with hard leg kicks. Once Nurmagomedov got the fight to the ground, he quickly locked in a triangle choke in Round 2 for the win.
After the fight, Nurmagomedov surprised the masses by announcing his retirement, fulfilling a promise to his mother that he would no longer compete without his father to guide him.