Dana White has an update on Khabib Nurmagomedov’s future in UFC. On Thursday night, the UFC president went to social media to announce that Nurmagomedov is done fighting. The undefeated UFC star announced his retirement after defeating Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 in October and moved to 29-0 in his career. White was hoping he would return.
“29-0 it is,” White wrote on Twitter. “He is [100%] retired. “It was incredible to watch you work [Nurmagomedov]. Thank you for EVERYTHING and enjoy whatever is next my friend.” Nurmagomedov went to Instagram to send a message to White and his fans.
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“It was a good dinner with some great people,” he wrote. [Dana White] thank you so much brother and the entire [UFC] team for the opportunity to prove myself, you guys have changed many lives forever because of this sport. Dana – I’ll never forget your attitude towards me, my father did not forget and my sons will remember you. Today there was a real conversation between real men. Also thank you to all team, sparing partners and all fans. I hope you will accept my decision and understand me.”
In October, White reacted to Nurmagomedov’s decision to call it a career. “I wasn’t, I sitting there going oh my god, you have to be kidding me,” White said. “But, I’ll tell you this, and I haven’t told anybody this yet, Khabib and I have been talking. He was completely emotional that night when he got through that fight, I have a feeling he might go for 30-0.”
White doubled down on his October comments in January. “Basically, the way that [Nurmagomedov] feels right now is that he has accomplished everything he has set out to accomplish,” White said to Jon Anik. “[But] he thought [Charles] Oliveira looked good in his last fight against Tony Ferguson. Next Saturday, we got the [Conor] McGregor-[Dustin] Poirier fight and [Michael] Chandler and [Dan] Hooker on there. “So his words to me were, ‘I’m going to watch this fight.’ He said, ‘I would never tie up the division, hold the belt and keep the belt away from anybody else.” Nurmagomedov won the UFC Lightweight Championship over Al Iaquinta at UFC 223 in April 2018. During his title reign, the 32-year old has defeated Dustin Poirier and Connor McGregor.
