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Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated Justin Gaethje last Saturday (Oct. 24, 2020) at UFC 254 in Abu Dhabi via submission (triangle choke) to remain the undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight champion.
And while “The Eagle” once again made it look effortless, perhaps what is more impressive is his off-the-charts level of concentration he had during the title bout. Because according to his longtime training partner and good friend Daniel Cormier, Nurmagomedov made sure he didn’t hurt Gaethje too bad.
To hear the former UFC “champ-champ” explain the conversation between he and “The Eagle” post-fight, Khabib was very cognisant of the fact that “Highlight” stated on numerous occasions that he wouldn’t tap, which is why he opted to finish him with a triangle choke instead.
“There were a number of little things that played into the Justin Gaethje submission,” Cormier told Ariel Helwani. “He told me when he was watching the interviews over the course of the week, he saw that Justin said he would never tap. And when he was going to the submission — it’s his dad’s favorite submission — get into mount, going into the armbar and go into triangle.
“So when he got there, he was going to do the armbar, but he had heard Justin all week saying he would never tap, so he didn’t want to hurt him in front of his parents, so he went to the triangle. I promise,” added Cormier, who says his decision and subsequent admission to why he did that has more to do with caring about Gaethje than bragging.
“He goes, ‘I didn’t want to hurt him in front of his parents, so I said I’m going to go and put him in a triangle. And if he goes to sleep, he goes to sleep, you wake up, you’re fine.’ This is exactly what he told me. That’s crazy, right? He did not want to hurt Justin in front of his parents.
“To be comfortable enough to think about this in the moment, like, that’s crazy. He didn’t want to break his arm. Because if Justin’s not going to tap, you have to break it. And he did not want to do that to Justin in front of his mom and dad. He said, ‘if I put him to sleep, he will wake up and everything will be okay.’”
So perhaps Khabib wasn’t giving it his all during that armbar attempt at the end of round one. In the end, Gaethje wound up tapping to the triangle choke on several occasions, but it seems the referee on duty also heard Justin’s claims of refusing to quit prior because he ignored the three taps before finally putting an end to the fight once he saw he was out.
Afterward, Nurmagomedov announced that he would be retiring from the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) after he promised his mother to not continue his career without his father by his side, who passed away earlier this year.