Retired former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov addresses some comments he made about the presence of ring girls in prizefighting.
A few months back, retired former UFC champion and pound-for-pound king Khabib Nurmagomedov dropped some controversial remarks about the presence of ring girls in prizefighting. Specifically, “The Eagle’s” words were “ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts.”
These comments, as expected, weren’t taken lightly. The typically celebrated former champion in Khabib was suddenly under fire. He was even called out for “sexism he was accustomed to in the Dagestani mountains.”
But if you ask the man himself, he was just speaking his mind.
“I say lotta strange things, too. But I don’t care. This is my opinion.” pic.twitter.com/LVUqALmGYv
— Milan Ordoñez (@Mr_Ordonez) October 6, 2021
“Couple month ago, someone ask me about… I have promotion. I have my own promotion Eagle Fighting Championship and someone ask about why there’s no ring girls there. I say because I think (there’s) no reason. It’s my opinion,” Khabib recently said in front of a live audience in Harrogate in the UK.
“Some people don’t agree with this, but who cares? I don’t care, because I have my opinion. Because this is my promotion and I make decision. Not Dana or not other people, you know?
“Dana can do whatever he want. I’m gonna do whatever I want. Sometime, he do something, like, I don’t understand him, too. But I never judge him. This is his decision because his name is Dana White. My name is Khabib.
“I never watch what people think about (me). If I have opinion, I just say it. That’s it.”
Khabib has always been known to speak with candor, and this is where his appeal mainly lies. He admits he tends to say a lot of “strange things” and expects the disagreements that would come his way.
“Always, I try to be myself. I know I can say lotta things, lotta good things. And people gonna like this. But I never think, ‘Oh, maybe people gonna like this or no?’ I know all the time I say lotta strange things, too. But I don’t care. This is my opinion,” he said.
“I’m born with this, I grew up with this, and I have straight my opinion. Sometimes, like, people, when I say something, they don’t agree with this. But, who cares? I don’t care because I know I am right. In my mind. Because everybody have their own views on something.”