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Ali Abdelaziz, the only manager that Khabib Nurmagomedov has had broke the news that his most popular client will be walking away from professional MMA. While the news is not totally shocking, it's a bitter pill to swallow.
In speaking with UFC Arabia, Ali said that Khabib Nurmagomedov has two fights left and then that's it. Actually it's shocking he isn't calling it a career right now. The death of the 31 year old's father crushed him to his core. Something that 99% of the planet knows all to well. Making things doubly worse for the family, is that it was complications from Covid-19 that took Abdulmanap.
The 28-0 fighter was to unify the lightweight title with stablemate Justin Gaethje. The fight that was scheduled for September may or may not be pushed back to give him enough time to mourn the man that made him.
Once officially retired the man that was sent specifically to Javier Mendez and AKA, will most likely take full reigns of EaglesMMA in Dagestan. Hoping to follow there in his legendary fathers training legacy
The laundry list of possible fighters to send him into retirement does lead into some interesting match ups. Providing Khabib Nurmagomedov defeats Justin, would the UFC and Dana White be willing to do the fight they have opposed, Georges St- Pierre? It's the fight that the Khabib Nurmagomedov family always wanted. And would be a decent send off. And GSP seems to still be on everyone's lips right now.
Would they try and book the cursed Tony Ferguson fight? Last time they tried it was right before the coronavirus outbreak. And many people have jokingly said if they try to book it yet again only god knows what will happen on Earth.
They could rematch Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, but the history there might not be the way the Russian wants to walk away from the sport. They could run back the Dustin Poirier fight as well, as that's the last time his father was able to see him fight in person. With the level of respect that "The Diamond" has it may be second best to GSP.
Or they could go a long shot route. The man looked at as the heir apparent at EaglesMMA is Islam Machachev. They train together, work together, and at times live together. Khabib looks at him like a younger brother. So it's a possibility that might be explored.
The only other challenger for Khabib Nurmagomedov might be Charles Oliveira. And that's a fight "Do Bronx" has called for. As breaking news you can safely guess that side stories will pop up like a wild fire about this. The guaranteed lock Hall Of Famer hopes to wrap his career up at an even 30-0.
