Eagle's last flight: Nurmagomedov defeats Gatji at UFC 254 and announces retirement

The fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje was rightly considered one of the main events of 2020 in the world of MMA.

Interest in the confrontation between the undefeated champion and the flamboyant puncher has been heating up over the past few months, and peaked in the last week before the fight.

It is all the more remarkable that only during this period, the long-awaited duel was at least twice under threat and could well have not taken place at all.

It all started with the fact that the champion's cousin Umar was hospitalized in Dubai with suspected coronavirus and withdrew from UFC 254. At first, it was assumed that he was sick with coronavirus, but later these assumptions were not confirmed.

Given that Nurmagomedov was preparing for the tournament with him, the champion could have become infected, but the fears turned out to be false, although the fighter's manager Ali Abdel-Aziz also passed a positive test for COVID-19.

At the same time, Umar became the second member of Nurmagomedov's team to lose a place in the show's card.

Earlier, Makhachev was unhooked from him, who was expecting a battle with ex-lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos.

All this made me think seriously about how such events would affect the emotional state of the champion.

Earlier, he admitted that he was uncomfortable playing at the same tournament with friends and brothers, but he was hardly happy about their absence.

This is especially true of Islam, which was completely forced to leave the UAE and go to the United States to prepare for a future battle.

However, what was most interesting was how Khabib would appear in the first fight after the death of his father.

It is no secret that Abdulmanap Magomedovich played a crucial role in his son's career and, in fact, was his head coach and mentor.

In his absence, the champion was left to rely solely on himself, which could have both positive and negative effects on him.

Nurmagomedov could either approach this battle over-motivated and collected, or break down under the weight of responsibility.

As for Gaethje, the impression was that he was approaching this fight in an optimal state - both physical and psychological.

At the weigh-in, the American looked noticeably fresher than the Russian, and in general looked more relaxed.

Unlike Khabib, he was not under serious pressure due to the death of his father and an unbeaten streak of 28 fights in a row.

According to Justin, he was well aware that initially he should not have been in Abu Dhabi, so he was determined to take advantage of the chance given to him.

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Publication from UFC Russia (@ufcrussia) Oct 24, 2020 1:55 am PDT

Despite the fact that many experts were quick to call Gaji the most dangerous rival in Nurmagomedov's career, few of them paid tribute to his grappling skills.

Most of the experts expressed confidence that if Khabib was able to transfer Justin to the flooring, then the duel could end as soon as possible.

At the same time, the skill in the stand was highly appreciated.

According to former UFC champion in two weight classes Conor McGregor, one good hit was enough for the American to inflict the first defeat on the Russian.

All the more unexpected were the first minutes of the fight.

Surely many expected that Nurmagomedov would try to protect himself as much as possible from Gaji's heavy blows and immediately pull him into the ground.

But Khabib decided to work in a standing position and fearlessly entered into exchanges with his opponent.

Not to say that the Russian felt comfortable in them, but he did not experience serious problems either.

He worked great with a jab and repeatedly forced the challenger to retreat.

Nevertheless, sometimes the attacking manner of conducting the battle left Nurmagomedov sideways.

At the end of the second minute, he got too carried away with the offensive several times and allowed Gaji several times to catch himself in the oncoming traffic.

The trademark low-kick with the right foot and the right overhand became especially dangerous.

After that, Khabib tried to hold a takedown for the first time, but to no avail.

By the end of the five-minute period, Gatji began to get punched more often, but at the same time, fatigue became more noticeable in his movements.

He seriously slowed down and began to retreat more and more to the net, which the champion could not fail to notice.

Nurmagomedov instantly performed the pass to the legs and transferred the vis-a-vis to the flooring, and only then confirmed that Justin was not able to compete with him in grappling.

In a matter of seconds, he went into full mount (dominant position from above) and tried to hold the lever of the elbow, but the gong saved the American.

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During the break in the Gatji team, they did not express concern about the state of things in the octagon and demanded that the fighter follow a given course.

His mentor Trevor Wittman especially noted that Justin needs to continue to use branded low-kicks in order to finally deprive Khabib of the opportunity to move around the octagon.

This he did, in the first few seconds, twice feeling the Russian's thigh.

After one of these hits, Nurmagomedov stumbled unsuccessfully, which only confirmed the words of the mentor.

Gatji decided to stick to the plan and after a few seconds again struck Nurmagomedov's left leg, but he used this to pull his opponent back into the ground.

A lightning-fast passage to a full mount followed again, but this time Khabib made not an armbar, but a "triangle".

Justin resisted desperately, but was powerless.

As a result, the American did not have time to knock and lost consciousness, which was noticed by referee Jason Herzog a few seconds later.

The Russian himself freed the vis-a-vis from the capture, after which he knelt in the center of the octagon and began to cry.

Nurmagomedov won 29 consecutive victories in his career, 13 of which - under the auspices of the largest MMA promotion on the planet.

He also doubled the record for the number of successful lightweight title defenses, belt fights won and the length of a successful streak in the 70kg division.

However, the main event of the evening took place after the official announcement of the triumphant, when Khabib announced his decision to leave the sport.

“I want to say that this is my last fight in the UFC.

This was the first time I had fought without a father.

Before the fight with Justin, I talked to my mother.

She didn't want me to fight without him.

I promised that this would be my last fight.

And I have to keep my word.

Now I want only one thing from the UFC - that on Tuesday they put me in first place in the Pound-for-Pound ranking, "Nurmagomedov said.