Former UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov almost cried after nearly losing his unbeaten record in the UFC.
Khabib Nurmagomedov retired from MMA in 2020. He left the game with a UFC lightweight title, a men’s top spot in the men’s rankings, and a perfect 29-0 record. That however, almost did not happen.
With Nurmagomedov’s talent there was always a good chance he could become a UFC champion. The unbeaten record however, could have ended long before it started in the UFC.
In his second UFC appearance Nurmagomedov won a unanimous decision on Gleison Tibau. Although, many onlookers thought that the war, which took place at UFC 148 in 2012, should have been scored by Brazilian points.
MMA decisions record that, with the exception of each judge beating the bout 30-27 against Nurmagomedov, five of the six points on the media list had a fight against Tibau (the majority favored him by 30-27 points).
Fight Metric shows why those media members are more likely to side with Tibau. Tibau received more important and complete strikes than Nurmagomedov and his accuracy was seven percent better than the most important strikes (thirteen percent were better than complete strikes). Tibau also dropped out of the fight (in six attempts), while Nurmagomedov went 0-13 to take the lead.
Despite the fact that Tibau was ahead of Nurmagomedov in all those numbers, Dagestan had plenty of time to “control” the fight (4:26 vs. 0:17).
During the reading of the judges’ official arguments overnight, which led to Mario Yamasaki raising Nuamrgomedov’s hand, Nurmagomedov burst into tears. An emotional outburst from the usual Nurmagomedov may be a sign that he too thought his complete record was on the verge of collapse.
Gleison Tibau on his fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov
Tibau, 38, is still competing. He faces Jarrah Al-Silawi in PFL 3 this weekend. During a media briefing on the event he spoke to MMA Mania on the night of his almost defeat of Nurmagomedov.
“People always say,‘ Man! You win this war, you win this war. ’All right, thank you, thank you,” he said. “Everyone is telling me [about me] about this war because it was a very difficult, very close-knit war. I think I [punched] a lot of punches, more downsizing, I don’t know what happened, I think I also won this fight.
“It has been a great surprise for me, a great surprise for Khabib. I spoke to my coaches, ‘It’s a tough fight, but yes, you win.’
I remember the referee raised his arm to Khabib. Man! Everyone was shocked, Khabib cried, he was crazy. I did not forget this time because he is now a big name, a strong young man, killing everyone like a simple battle. The battle was fierce, very close.”
Currently Tibau’s record is 37-15. He left the UFC in 2018 after 28 fights over promotion and won Rafael dos Anjos, Francisco Trinaldo, Jeremy Stephens and Cool Uno.
After leaving the UFC he fought for Golden Boy Promotions and Battlefield FC before coming up with the PFL. In the 2021 season he was defeated by Joao Zeferino and then beat Rory MacDonald (by a decisive decision) and Micah Terrill.
