With Charles Oliveira’s current magnificent run, the comparisons to Khabib Nurmagomedov have been made. The retired undefeated fighter shut the comparisons down, however.
Nobody ever touched my face
“He impressed me like a little bit, but every fight he goes down. This one is a little bit bad for him. In every fight, he goes down a couple of times,” Nurmagomedov said during an interview with ESPN. Last fight, it was like, how many? Two, three times knockdowns? With Michael Chandler, with Dustin Poirier, with Justin Gaethje, he always goes down. This is a little bit questionable, you know. Nobody ever touched my face, and all the time he go down. People cannot talk about like compare me vs. Charles Oliveira.
“He tapped in UFC eight times. Please, come on. When he tapped to Jim Miller, Anthony Pettis, Holloway, Felder – it was Charles Oliveira. It was not Khabib. If you want to deserve the name greatest lightweight, he has to beat Islam [Makhachev], Beneil [Dariush], and a couple more guys, and then we can talk. He has to be a professional and make weight when he has a championship belt.”
Khabib gives his respect
Nevertheless, Nurmagomedov is very impressed with what the Brazilian is doing in the octagon.
“But what he’s doing, this is very impressive,” Nurmagomedov said “How he came back from so many losses, and now he has good ground, he has good striking game. Knees, elbows, kicks, he looks good. That’s why I really want to see him vs. Islam. This is like a big test for both of them.”
Oliveira is the UFC’s all-time leader in submissions and overall finishes. If Do Bronx had made weight at UFC 274, he would have been one title defense away from tying Nurmagomedov in title defenses.
While there is an argument to make that Oliveira’s UFC resume is much stronger than Nurmagomedov’s, it is the undefeated record that holds a lot of weight. However, if Oliveira goes out and defeats Nurmagomedov’s protege, Makhachev, we will have this conversation again asap.
