Footage has emerged, appearing to show former undisputed UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov less than amused as a drone flys and films in his face while he shadow boxes, before punching the equipment out of the air onto the mats of American Kickboxing Academy.
Khabib, a former undisputed lightweight champion under the UFC banner, called time on his professional mixed martial arts career and active competition back in October of 2020 after UFC 254, defeating Justin Gaethje to unify the division championships.
In the time since, the 29-0 Dagestani grappler has turned his hand to promoting as he heads up Eagle FC which has since located its home base in Florida, while he has also taken a prominent role as a head coach at native gym, American Kickboxing Academy.
Khabib Nurmagomedov was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame earlier this summer
Practising shadow boxing on the mats of the San Jose, California facility – Khabib’s routine appears to be interrupted by the presence of a flying drone, which he initially avoids, before firing off a straight right hand – sending the drone across the gym and into a crash mat on the wall.
Ending his Octagon tenure officially at the beginning of last year, Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was recently inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame as part of the promotion’s Modern Wing era, managed to secure a trio of successful title defenses over former division champions, Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Gaethje during his year and a half reign atop the weight class.
As mentioned above, Khabib Nurmagomedov has since taken on a senior coaching role alongside Javier Mendez at AKA, and the duo will look to land a second lightweight championship for the San Jose facility in October, as Khabib guides his compatriot and teammate, Islam Makhachev into a daunting vacant championship battle against former titleholder, Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 on ‘Fight Island’.