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It has been a few months since Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his retirement, and the fighter is clearly enjoying his time off the octagon.
The UFC lightweight champion recently posted a picture on Instagram posing in San Francisco, California. He talked about how much he was enjoying not being an 'active athlete.'
Khabib Nurmagomedov said that being on a diet and cutting down weight in preparation for fights felt like being 'in prison'. He wrote in this regard:
"Since 2012, I just dreamed of getting to this city (SF) without preparing for my fight and without any diet, just take a walk and enjoy a good meal. The answer is that I seemed to be in prison. Alhamdulillah, how good it is not to be an active athlete."
Khabib Nurmagomedov has been fighting in the UFC since 2012, which is also around the same time he started to visit American cities.
His first fight under the promotion was against Kamal Shalorus at UFC on FX - Guillard vs Miller, which he won via a rear-naked choke submission. Following this win, he picked up a decision against Gleison Tibau at UFC 148, thereby cementing his place in the UFC lightweight division.
Khabib Nurmagomedov subsequently started to visit California more frequently after he joined the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose. That is where the Dagestani champion befriended the former light heavyweight and heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, with whom he still shares great camaraderie.
Is Khabib Nurmagomedov coming back to the UFC?
Following his win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 last year, Khabib Nurmagomedov left his gloves at the center of the octagon in memory of his father, late Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
He said that he was not interested in continuing to fight without his father by his side. Nurmagomedov also said he had promised his mother that this would be the last fight of his career and that he intended on keeping his word to her.
But the matter of whether Khabib Nurmagomedov has truly retired has been a matter of debate in the MMA community over the last few months. 'The Eagle' has said on multiple occasions that he plans on staying retired, but his manager Ali Abdelaziz and the UFC president Dana White have had different takes on the matter.
During the UFC 257 fight week, Dana White had a meeting with Khabib Nurmagomedov; at the end of that interaction, the duo decided that the champion will see how the lightweight division plays out before deciding if he'll be back.
In a more recent interview with Esquire Middle East, Khabib Nurmagomedov refused to shut the door on his UFC return. It remains to be seen if he has indeed fought his last fight in the promotion.
