Khabib Nurmagomedov has accused Dana White of telling an “absolute lie”, after the UFC president said the former champion retired – in part – because he made enough money from speaking in “Muslim” countries.
Nurmagomedov won the UFC lightweight title in 2018, and he retired as champion in 2020 after submitting Justin Gaethje to maintain his unbeaten record. Along the way, Nurmagomedov recorded successful title defences against Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, submitting both men.
The Russian’s bitter rivalry with McGregor catapulted Nurmagomedov to stardom, and his 2018 fight with the Irishman remains the highest-grossing bout in the history of mixed martial arts.
Nurmagomedov, 37, retired in the cage immediately after beating Gaethje, citing a lack of desire to keep fighting after his father had passed away earlier in 2020. Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, who worked as Khabib’s head coach, died of complications from Covid. Upon retiring, Khabib also cited a promise to his mother that he would stop fighting.
White has long suggested that Nurmagomedov’s earnings meant he did not need to carry on in the cage, and the 56-year-old told Prince St Pizza this week: “Khabib, you know, again… I always said: wait until we get a Muslim world champion. You know, three billion Muslims or whatever, but the problem was… is that… then he went out on the Muslim tour.
“He hit Saudi [Arabia], Abu Dhabi, you know, Qatar, all these places. They rained on him, you know, so he made so much money, he didn’t have to fight anymore.
“And his dad passed away, which I think had a big… had a lot to do with him not wanting to do it anymore.”
There are believed to be 2bn practising Muslims worldwide at the time of writing, with that number up from an estimated 1.9bn when Nurmagomedov won the UFC title.
In any case, Nurmagomedov took to Instagram to dismiss White’s words, writing: “These are the kinds of headlines I sometimes read online. Of course, I’m not someone who likes to comment on every piece of garbage I read on the internet, but when Dana says things like this, it spreads everywhere.
“I’ll say this: I swear by Allah, this is an absolute lie. Nobody ever gave me those millions, and what they’re writing, that I left the sport because I made a lot of money, is also not true.
“The whole world knows the real truth. I’ve already spoken about this more than once, and there’s no need to repeat it.”
Nurmagomedov now coaches fighters, including childhood friend Islam Makhachev, who is the reigning UFC welterweight champion.
Makhachev, 34, won the welterweight belt in November after vacating the lightweight title. As lightweight champion, Makhachev broke Nurmagomedov’s joint-record number of successful title defences by retaining the gold four times.
