Since defeating Dustin Poirier last October, Khabib Nurmagomedov has announced he will retire. And so, Khabib's legendary fighting career ended with a record 29-0.
Although Nurmagomedov seemed to be no longer interested in playing, UFC President Dana White still made great efforts to entice him to the ring for the 30th match. However, on Friday morning in Vietnam, White finally accepted that the Russian champion will retire officially.
According to George St-Pierre, UFC does not want Khabib Nurmagomedov to proactively end his career, just like the way St Pierre has done while he is still holding the Welterweight championship in 2013 and then the Middleweight championship again in 2017.
“I believe they want to keep Khabib stay because they feel Khabib has no opponent,” St-Pierre said in an interview before White confirmed that Nurmagomedov would not return.
“He is probably the most overwhelming career ever. I don't even know if Khabib has lost his point in a certain half. Even if Khabib lost a half, he would have surpassed all the opponents in every match.”
“UFC does not want that Khabib to take the initiative to leave. They want a person to defeat Khabib, then they will say: 'Okay, now you can leave.” But Khabib is very smart, I think he is very smart when choosing to leave at the peak. Nothing is wrong with that decision! “