Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may be back in action sooner than later.
According to Dana White, undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov won’t return to action until the later months of 2020. “September or October” said the UFC president, who also confirmed that the winner of UFC 249’s 155-pound tiff between Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson gets the next crack at “The Eagle.”
But according to the man himself, a return may happen sooner than expected. The 31-year-old fighter made his announcement through a response to a post by ESPN MMA’s Instagram account.
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Khabib is seemingly trying to make up for lost time, after being forced out of his scheduled title defense for the original UFC 249 date on April 18th. Historically, he has only fought once in the month of July, and that was during his second UFC fight at UFC 148 in 2012 against Gleison Tibau.
Since his rise to top contender status until his title reign, Khabib’s fight season has been around first half and the latter four months of the year.
It remains to be seen if Khabib will indeed be back inside the Octagon by July. Until then, he’ll be closely watching Saturday’s headliner, which takes place at the VyStar Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.