Dana White tried to talk Khabib Nurmagomedov out of retirement, and he lost. The UFC CEO said “I threw everything at him,” according to NDTV Sports, which reported that White ruled out a return to the Octagon and confirmed that the retirement U-turn talks failed.
That’s about as official as a non-announcement gets. When the guy who signs the checks says he emptied the vault and still got a no, you can stop refreshing the odds boards.
Why This One Stings for the UFC
Nurmagomedov walked away at 29-0, the cleanest record any elite fighter has carried out the door. He was the longest-reigning lightweight champion in UFC history, holding the belt from April 2018 to March 2021, a run of 1,134 days. He was ranked No. 1 pound-for-pound when he retired and only came off the list after he vacated the title. Fight Matrix has him as the top lightweight of all time, and the UFC put him in its Hall of Fame on June 30, 2022.
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He also moved money like few others. His UFC 229 win over Conor McGregor sold around 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, the biggest number the promotion has ever done, and that’s before you count the post-fight brawl that earned him a nine-month suspension and a $500,000 fine from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
After hanging up the gloves, Nurmagomedov stayed around as a full-time coach and cornerman before stepping away from the sport completely in January 2023. He founded Eagles MMA and promotes Eagle Fighting Championship.
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The Betting Angle Nobody Gets to Use
Here’s my honest relief. A 29-0 legend returning after vacating his belt in March 2021 would have opened as a short favorite against almost anyone, purely on reputation, and I’d have spent a month yelling about ring rust into a void. Long layoff, short price, a name that sells itself. That’s my least favorite bet in the sport, and White just took it off the menu.
It was a busy week for White’s patience. At the UFC 334 press conference, he called the brawl involving Usman Nurmagomedov and Merab Dvalishvili “absolutely ridiculous and stupid,” adding, “They’re all in jail. That is not a place to go f*ck around.” Ariel Helwani confirmed on X that everyone involved remained detained.
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So one Nurmagomedov is in a cell in Abu Dhabi and the other won’t take White’s calls about fighting. The undefeated record stays at 29-0, and it’s staying there.
