Khabib asked about potential women’s divisions in Eagle FC

Former UFC champ Khabib Nurmagomedov spoke about his burgeoning Eagle FC promotion.

Khabib Nurmagomedov did what few UFC fighters do; go out on top. He retired from MMA in 2020 after defending his UFC lightweight title to Justin Gaethje and securing number one spot on the UFC’s men’s pound-for-pound rankings.

Since then ‘The Eagle’ has been coaching and cornering his close friends and family, including Islam Makhachev and Usman Nurmagomedov, and working with his fledgling promotion Eagle FC.

His promotion, which has already put on dozens of shows in Russia and the Middle East, is due for its US debut in January with a card headlined by Tyrone Spong vs. Sergei Kharitonov. The promotion recently announced one of it’s biggest signings to date, former UFC headliner Kevin Lee.

Recently, during a press conference, Nurmagomedov was asked if we could expect any women to be signed by Eagle FC. Nurmagomedov, who is on the record as not being a fan of women’s MMA (and ring girls), didn’t rule it out.

See what he told MMA reporter Helen Yee below.

“I am like we can watch what Julianna Peña did with Amanda Nunes,” he said (ht sportskeeda). “But Julianna Peña, she is not like the greatest or something like that. She just beat Amanda Nunes like [on the day]. We can watch not many good [female] fighters all around the world. There are only like five or six of them. And we will wait and see.”

Nurmagomedov ’s claims that there are only five or six “good” women fighters in the world is simply not true. This stance also begs the question as to how he rates the skills of the various men his promotion has signed.

Eagle 44 FC, which was originally slated to feature Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in the main event, is scheduled to take place on January 28 in Miami, Fl. Also on the card is former UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao vs. Horacio Gutierrez and Ray Borg vs. Cody Gibson.