Khabib Nurmagomedov hardly ever lost a round during his legendary UFC career, but Sean O'Malley believes he would have struggled against Charles Oliveira.
Nurmagomedov won all 29 of his career fights in dominant fashion before retiring and vacating the lightweight title back in October 2020 after defeating Justin Gaethje. UFC boss Dana White desperately tried to get him to reconsider but after roughly six months, he gave in and ordered for the vacant title to be put up in a fight between Oliveira and Michael Chandler.
The Brazilian, who on multiple occasions was on the verge of release from the company for losing consecutive fights, defied the odds to stop Chandler and take the belt with a second-round knockout. He defended his crown against Dustin Poirier in December and again last month against Gaethje, but was stripped of the title after missing weight for the latter bout by half a pound.
O'Malley, one of the UFC's brightest prospects down at bantamweight, believes that a fight between Oliveira and Nurmagomedov - neither of whom lost their belts - would have been a great one. He told MMAFighting that he feels the Russian icon may have retired early after seeing the field around him.
“That’s the one interesting fight that I would like to see if Khabib came back in the division,” O’Malley said. “It would be Charles. Everyone else I think Khabib kind of mauls.
“I think Charles is the only one that can really give Khabib problems and, who knows, maybe that’s why Khabib stepped away. Maybe he saw, ‘I don’t want that guy.’ Who knows, but yeah, that’s one fight that I would be interested in seeing Khabib come back for. It would be a massive fight.”
Oliveira is the champion in all but name heading into his next fight, which will be his fourth in a row for the belt. He submitted Gaethje with ease in their May 14 meeting, but didn't leave as champion due to his weight issue.
Would you have liked to see a fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira before he retired? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
This could affect him financially heading into his next fight, with O'Malley noting that he may not receive pay-per-view backend points, as is standard for UFC champions. This would play a massive part in the Brazilian's next purse.
“Charles is the champ and everyone knows it,” the bantamweight continued. “That’s just it. I don’t think anybody looks at him as not being the champ. I don’t think you can find one person that thinks he’s not the champ or wouldn’t call him the champ.
“I hope he got his pay-per-view money, I hope he is making the championship money going into the next fight. Everyone’s got to look at him as the champ, the fight’s he’s been doing, the performances he’s been putting on. Charles Oliveira’s the champ and everyone knows it.”
