UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has broken his silence following Dana White’s statement regarding their meeting.
Following Dana White and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s long-anticipated meeting, we heard Dana White’s report of what was said between the two, but we have yet to hear straight from the Eagle’s mouth. White claimed that Khabib was impressed by Charles Oliveira, so much so that he felt Oliveira is deserving of a world title shot.
White also did a fine job of promoting the UFC 257 pay per view with his report of Khabib’s words. White claimed that Nurmagomedov required a performance stirring enough to move him out of retirement and motivated to return. In his first interview since Dana White’s paraphrasing, Khabib began by tackling the topic of motivation.
“Let’s start with what drives people. Hunger? There must be some motivation, some hunger,” Nurmagomedov reportedly said according to the translation in an interview by Sport24ru. “…I’ve been doing it all my life. I have achieved almost everything in this sport, and there isn’t someone who I would like to fight now. I know that there are many fighters who would like to earn money, who strive for something. What should I do? A lot of people don’t want to understand my side. I don’t see that yet.”
What Would It Take For Khabib To Return?
Khabib’s words do not differ too widely from Dana White’s upon initial inspection. Dana White began his report on Saturday by mentioning that Khabib told him he felt he achieved everything he wanted to achieve. But what about the other part? What about Khabib needing to see something special for him to return to fight whoever impressed him? What was meant by that?
“Well, something, I don’t know,” Nurmagomedov said. “Something has to happen for me to come back…I have so much to do that is planned, and fights are not in these plans.”
So we are pretty much in the same place we were pre-meeting with Khabib’s career still in limbo. The difference between Khabib’s and White’s rhetoric is that Khabib is placing the emphasis on fighting not being in his plans while White is putting the emphasis on the “something would have to happen” portion of the comments. Khabib’s comments do not necessarily contradict White’s report of his words, but there is one obstacle that perhaps neither Khabib nor Dana White would be able to overcome even if they wanted to, and it’s one that head coach Javier Mendez reminded the public of recently.
“My mother is the most precious thing I have left,” Nurmagomedov said. “Come on, you won’t push me to do things that will disappoint my mother…”
What do you make of Khabib’s comments in comparison to what Dana White reported on Saturday?
