3 things we learned from Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC 254 interview
By Nicole Bosco
Prior to UFC 254 Khabib Nurmagomedov spoke to media and answered questions about the fight, here are a few things we learned.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is set to defend his lightweight title yet again in Abu Dhabi. He will be traveling to fight island to face off against interim titleholder Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. Before the fight, the stars of the card sat down to answer some questions from the media. During Nurmagomedov’s interview, he mentioned a few things that fans found very interesting. Here are three of the biggest takeaways from his pre-fight presser.
1. Nurmagomedov is tired of answering questions regarding his father’s death
Nurmagomedov lost his father and coach a few months ago. As expected the loss of his main coach is a tough one that he has had to overcome in preparing for this title fight. When asked about the difficulty, Nurmagomedov sighed and expressed his annoyance with this sort of question being asked to him constantly.
“I don’t understand when people ask me how difficult is it for you to train without your father?” Nurmagomedov explained. “Of course this is difficult, I don’t understand why you guys keep asking me this. I am human too, of course, this very difficult.”
2. Nurmagomedov is a big fan of Israel Adesanya
Nurmagomedov was asked if he believed that the middleweight champion Adesanyan would be a big star. Adesanya is straight off a big title defense against Paulo Costa and has been the talk of many MMA circles over the past few days. Rightfully so many have become big fans of his following the win, and Nurmagomedov is one of them.
“I think he is already a superstar,” Nurmagomedov said. “Right now he is very good. He is undefeated, 20-0, he beat a lot of top guys. He beat Gastelum and Costa and now he defends his title two times. He is already a big star.”
3. Nurmagomedov and Dana White have something big coming soon
Nurmagomeov has been in the sport for some time. He has fought the best of the best and has never been defeated. He was asked the question about what is left for him in the sport. He has expressed interest in a potential bout with Georges St-Pierre but it seems that fight will not happen. So what is next for the lightweight king?
“I’m going to finish Justin Gaethje inside the cage on Oct. 24, what else? This is a very good question,” Nurmagomedov said. “I love competition. I love competing with the best fighters in the world, that’s why I’m here. I’m not in the UFC to make money. I have a lot of business projects outside the UFC.”
When pressed if retirement would be next for him after this fight, Nurmagomedov shut it down.
“I don’t think,” Nurmagomedov said. “We have a couple of options after this fight. Dana told me after this fight that he has something special for me. I told him, ‘please keep this, after the fight we are going to talk.’ He said we have very big things after this fight.”
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