“It makes his LEGEND bigger,” Chael Sonnen REVEALS the REAL reason Khabib Nurmagomedov left the sport at the top
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Khabib Nurmagomedov- Chael Sonnen
Khabib Nurmagomedov will always be questioned about leaving the fight game too soon for a legendary figure like him, but Chael Sonnen sees it as a better statement made in the long run for the Russian’s legacy. Khabib, the former UFC lightweight champion and the only UFC champion to retire undefeated, was inducted into this year’s UFC Hall of Fame at International Fight Week alongside his teammate from the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), Daniel Cormier.
Khabib is tied with UFC champions BJ Penn, Frankie Edgar and Benson Henderson for the most title defences in UFC history. Khabib is the first Russian UFC champion in the modern-era wing since Oleg Taktarov is known for winning the UFC 6 tournament during the pre-Zuffa pioneer era of the early 90s. Khabib is known for his wins over the likes of Rafael Dos Anjos, Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Gleison Tibau, Michael Johnson and many more.
Chael Sonnen says it wouldn’t have been a good business had Khabib left the sport “bloody”
In one of the videos on his Youtube channel, Sonnen talks about how he feels when he hears former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson wishing that Khabib stayed longer in the sport because the latter believed that Khabib’s defeat was somewhere around the corner had he stayed in the sport long enough. Sonnen agrees with Johnson but also talks about how things go that way once you have done it all and what would’ve happened even if Khabib had cleared the doubts of his greatness by defeating Charles Oliveira. the former UFC champion who many thought had the right answers to give Khabib his first professional loss.
“If you do good business, by the way, you don’t go in there and leave everybody bloody… so when you have somebody like Khabib, where was that loss, how many years away was it, what weight class was it at… was it Charles Oliveira [to defeat Khabib]…I think that’s positive [for Khabib to leave the sport early]. I think it makes the legend of Khabib bigger…“
What do you make of Sonnen’s take on Khabib’s timely leave as a “good business” move and thinking that the latter made his legend bigger? Do you feel the same way or will Khabib’s greatness forever be tarnished by not fighting the top competition that exists today? Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones is considered the undisputed greatest mixed martial artist of all time. The reason for his greatness was that he defeated the past, present and future of the light-heavyweight competition.
When Khabib defeated former UFC champion Rafael Dos Anjos back in 2014, his injuries hindered his chance to become a UFC champion anytime sooner and eventually Dos Anjos became the champion after defeating Anthony Pettis. When Khabib became the UFC champion, he defeated the ones that were deserving of the title shot. So Khabib did defeat the future of the lightweight division only before becoming the champion, which turned into defeating the past of the division and eventually, Khabib fought everyone in his present, except for Tony Ferguson and Charles Oliveira, who by the way bloomed in the later part of his career.
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Abhai Singh Tanwar
(1386 Articles Published)