5 reasons why Khabib Nurmagomedov is the GOAT

Khabib Nurmagomedov, after a clinical performance against Justin Gaethje, left his gloves in the ring to signify that it would be his last fight in the Octagon. Many believed the American would be the toughest test of the Russian's career, but this fight followed the same trajectory as his other fights - with Khabib on the offensive and his opponent doing his best to survive.

In the aftermath, Dana White among many others concurred what we all knew felt was coming for some time now - Khabib is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC at the moment.

However, the next question is a bit more tricky - is he the greatest of all time?

Here are five reasons why Khabib Nurmagomedov could very well be.

#1 Khabib Nurmagomedov's dominance in MMA

In MMA, you will seldom see a fighter with an unbeaten record, let alone an unbeaten record with almost 30 fights. What is more impressive is he has unanimously lost just one round during his time in the UFC - against Conor McGregor - and that too in a fight he ended up winning.

Khabib's dominance over his opponents is unparalleled. Among the rest of the fighters in the GOAT conversation, only Jon Jones can claim to be - for all intents and purposes - undefeated.

However, even he can't claim to have dominated his opponents in the way the 32-year-old has over the last decade in UFC.

#2 The depth of the Lightweight division

habib Nurmagomedov celebrates his win over Al Iaquinta

The Lightweight and Welterweight divisions in the UFC or any other organisation is usually the most stacked divisions owing to the law of averages. Most average sized human beings belong to those weight categories. As such, you end up with deeper talent pools in them.

Khabib's record, in that shark-tank of a division, underlines his greatness.

A quick glance at some of the opponents he has overcome during his time in the UFC will read Pat Healy, Rafael dos Anjos, Darrell Horcher, Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, Al Iaquinta, Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje - the who's who of the division over the last decade.

We know styles make fights. But Khabib has faced wrestlers, submission specialists and top-level strikers and managed to come out at the other end without a scratch.

Being the best is one thing, but being the best in, arguably, the best division in UFC, is Khabib's crowning glory.

#3 Khabib has furthered the evolution of MMA

Khabib Nurmagomedov of Russia compete against Dustin Poirier of United States

When wrestlers started to dominate the sport of MMA in the early 2000s, strikers realised the importance of keeping the fight at their desired distance and 'sprawl and brawl' became the order of the day.

However, the wrestlers learnt to mix takedowns with their striking, thus nullifying the defence of a 'sprawl'. Thus came the wall walk, where a fighter makes his way to the cage, pushes up against it (without giving up his back), gets under-hooks and uses it to escape a wrestler's attempts to hold him down.

Most top fighters and top-gyms use wall-walking as their go-to strategy to get up from the mat. Khabib has many great attributes, but his work against the cage is unparalleled in the sport.

Not a single fighter he has faced has had the answer to Khabib's cage wrestling. It is almost a foregone conclusion when you see his opponent against the cage, as he sucks in their hips, crosses them over and rains down ground pound. If a fighter tries to turn with his arms on the mat, he uses the 'Dagestani Handcuff' to control one arm and punch with the other rendering his opponent defenseless.

If, by the odd chance, his opponent fights his way back to feet, his pressure against the fence and trips take them down straight away and they have to start from scratch again.

These chain wrestling sequences against the cage breaks his opponents - physically and mentally.

There are a handful of fighters who have started to pick up on the tendencies of strikers to wall-walk such as Dan Ige, Kamaru Usman and Khabib's teammate Islam Makhachev.

Before Khabib's immaculate work against the fence, we had never really seen a grappler use the cage to their advantage in such devastating fashion before.

#4 The perfect time to retire

Part of the reason Khabib has one of the biggest fanbases in combat sports is his personality. Speaking ahead of UFC 254, Khabib in an interview with Brett Okamoto of ESPN said:

I want to be free because I am [the] Eagle. I want to fly and fly. When my time comes, I am going to die. But before my time comes, I want to be free. I want to spend time with my family and I want to live in my village.

For many fighters, fighting is a drug they can't seem to live without. In Khabib's case, he seems to value other things in his life much more than fighting and the gold-dust that comes along with being a top sports personality.

We have seen many a fighter go out on their own shield in combat sport, exiting as pale shadows of their former dominant selves. Take for example Fedor Emelianenko or Anderson Silva who still continue to fight to this day. Even Mike Tyson and Roy Jones Jr., well into their 50's, are going to compete against each other.

To be able to retire at the top of the MMA world, as an undisputed champion and the pound-for-pound the best fighter in the sport, is an understated achievement. It puts an exclamation mark on his greatness.

#5 The pretenders to the throne

The debate of the GOAT in any sport is often the most controversial one. Whether it is Michael Jordan vs Lebron James in basketball or Pele vs Diego Maradona in football (or Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi depending upon which generation you belong to), arguments can often be made for or against each athlete.

However, Khabib's dominance in his fighting career leaves the other pretenders to the throne substantially short.

Fedor Emelianenko, once considered by many to represent the pinnacle of the sport, lost to Dan Henderson and Fabrício Werdum in what can be considered his prime.

Jon Jones, if you agree with Dana White and ignore the illegal elbows that cost him the Matt Hamill fight, is still undefeated. However, there are several asterisks to his record due to the PED violations and the extremely close fights against Alexander Gustafsson, Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes.

Many even felt Dominick Reyes won his fight against Jon Jones.

Anderson Silva was untouchable in his prime but never recovered from that loss to Chris Weidman. Add in the the PED violations of his own, and his claim loses luster.

The only person who comes close to competing with Khabib for the GOAT status is probably Georges St-Pierre.

Thus a fight between the two would have been massive if it was to happen.

However, with both fighters now retired, we would be remiss if we didn't give the edge in the argument to the undefeated fighter who 'smeshed everybody' and left us wanting much much more.