“Khabib Nurmagomedov Was so…”: Daniel Cormier Reveals Quality That Made ‘The Eagle’ Special

Khabib Nurmagomedov is regarded as one of the greatest grappler the UFC has ever seen. ‘The Eagle’ ended his career after a dominant display against Justin Gaethje at UFC 253. Nurmagomedov finished his career with an unblemished record of 29-0 having lost hardly any rounds as a professional fighter. While there have been dominant fighters in the past, none have achieved the level of dominance Nurmagomedov was able to.

‘The Eagle’ had an unbreakable spirit, elite wrestling and cardio for days. When it is all combined together it makes for one of the most dominant lightweight of all time. In a recent podcast with Joe Rogan, former teammate Daniel Cormier shared his thoughts on what exactly separated Nurmagomedov from the other great grapplers in the UFC. He said,

“Dude, the way he (Jones) was able to manipulate positions, because I thought without a shadow of a doubt that I would take him down at will. But it is hard, even if you get a takedown, it is hard against the best guys. I picked Stipe up and I threw him down. Held him down for the whole first round. And then he got up cause we gotta start again. So now I gotta start that process all over again. And that is why Khabib Nurmagomedov was so special. Because it did not matter how many times he had to restart the process he went right back to doing that with his opponent knowing he was going to throw you to the ground.”

DC mentioned Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic while explaining how Nurmagomedov was special. Cormier stated that the Dagestani was able to take down his opponent to the ground every time his opponents were on their feets.

‘The Eagle’ ended his UFC career with an impressive 5.32 takedowns landed every 15-minutes. This was combined with an accuracy of 48% and a takedown defense of 84%. With that being said let’s take a closer look at Khabib Nurmagomedov’s life after retiring from fighting.

What has Khabib Nurmagomedov been doing after stepping away from the UFC?

After calling it quits on his career, ‘The Eagle’ had only one goal in mind. He wanted to help his fellow teammate Islam Makhachev become the lightweight champion and fulfil his father’s prophecy. Once that was done, ‘The Eagle’ stepped away from coaching as well to spend more time with his family and focus on his business ventures.

 

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Nowadays, ‘The Eagle’ spends his time travelling the world and enjoying the fruits of his labour. Although he is not associated with the sport anymore, ‘The Eagle’ still trains multiple times a week and remains in good shape for a retired fighter. Whether or not Nurmagomedov returns to a coaching role in the future, only time will tell.