Conor or Gaethje: Which is the toughest fight of Khabib's career?

Comparing his fights with Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov called his fight with Gaethje the hardest of his career.

According to Khabib, the fight with Conor was the hardest fight of his career at that time. "100 percent. Fights are psychology. Mentally, it was the hardest fight at that time. After that, I had an even harder fight with Gaethje," he said.

Nurmagomedov explained why the fight with Gaethje was the hardest: "First of all, because I lost my father. It was very difficult to control myself. Everything came together. My father died, I trained without him - without the person I trained with and wanted to become a champion. First of all, I wanted to prove to him that I could be the best."

The athlete nicknamed "The Eagle" also noted that he had health problems before the last fight. "I was not in good health during the training, I got injured one after another. But mentally I kept my sharpness. No one knew yet that this was my last fight. And I knew for myself: I had to put an end to everything there. It would be very difficult to go through all this, to get injured. My mother would have to go through this again. We talked with her about ending my career. That's why I wanted to put an end to everything," says Nurmagomedov.

For information, Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated American Justin Gaethje in his last fight in the UFC in 2021 by choke. During his MMA career, he fought 29 fights, winning all of them. In 2022, he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

Nurmagomedov began coaching after the death of his father. He has coached Islam Makhachev, Umar and Usman Nurmagomedov, along with Javier Mendes. Nurmagomedov has also developed the Khabib Gym international gym chain and invested in various sports projects.