The Eagle has landed in the UFC Hall of Fame
🦅Congratulations @TeamKhabib
on becoming the first inductee to the UFC Hall of Fame Class of
2022 🏆[
#UFCHOF | Hall of Fame Presented by @ToyoTires
] pic.twitter.com/tJHCCLq6RR
— UFC (@ufc)
March 6, 2022
It didn’t take long for Khabib
Nurmagomedov to dominate mixed martial arts’ lightweight
division and that dominance led immortality.
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship announced Saturday that
Nurmagomedov, one of the sport’s all-time greats, will be inducted
into the promotion’s Hall of Fame in its “Modern Wing” this
summer.
“Khabib is one of the greatest athletes to ever compete in
professional sports,” UFC President Dana White said in a statement.
“No one dominated their opponents the way Khabib did, and to retire
undefeated, as lightweight champion and the No.1 pound-for-pound
athlete in the world is an incredible accomplishment. It will be an
honor to induct him into the UFC Hall of Fame this summer.”
Nurmagomedov (29-0) retired as the unbeaten UFC lightweight
champion, hands down the greatest to ever compete in the division,
a living legend who barely lost a round throughout his illustrious
career. Nurmagomedov dominated every man he faced, and he locked
horns with some of the best of his generation. Wins over the likes
of Michael
Johnson, Al Iaquinta
and Rafael dos
Anjos preceded a trio of submissions over Dustin
Poirier, Conor
McGregor and Justin
Gaethje.
Nurmagomedov will join other elites in the Modern Wing, with
Forrest
Griffin (2013), B.J. Penn (2015),
Urijah
Faber (2017), Ronda
Rousey (2018), Michael
Bisping (2019), Rashad
Evans (2019) and Georges St.
Pierre (2020) already enshrined. The “Modern Era” category
includes athletes who turned pro on or after Nov. 17, 2000 (when
the first UFC event under the unified rules of MMA was held), are a
minimum age of 35 or who have been retired for one year or
more.
Nurmagomedov enters the UFC Hall of Fame with an impressive resume
that includes:
• 4 title fight wins – Tied for most in UFC lightweight division
history
• 12 lightweight division wins – Tied for longest winning streak in
UFC lightweight division history
• 13 consecutive wins – Tied for 3rd longest winning streak in UFC
history (2012-20)
• 21 takedowns – Most takedowns in a single UFC bout (vs. Abel
Trujillo – UFC 160)
• 59 takedowns – Second-most in UFC lightweight division
history
• 54.6% – Third highest control time percentage in lightweight UFC
history
• 1:29:08 – Third-most control time in lightweight UFC history
• 1:04:28 – Third-most top position time in lightweight UFC
history
• 88 significant ground strikes – Fourth-most landed in a single
UFC bout (vs. Michael
Johnson – UFC 205)
“The Eagle” stepped away from combat in October 2020 after besting
Gaethje due to the passing of his father and head coach Abdulmanap
Nurmagomedov and vowed to never fight again without his father. At
33 years of age, there’s no telling what else Nurmagomedov would
have achieved inside the Octagon had he not retired, but the
Dagestan native did more than enough to be enshrined into the UFC’s
Hall of Fame.
The induction ceremony is scheduled to take place during UFC’s
International Fight Week in Las Vegas from June 27 through July 3.