This Saturday marks a very important day for MMA fans around the world, as arguably one of the most important events of the year is taking place, UFC254. The event will conclude the second run of Fight Island in Abu Dhabi that takes place in order to host international fighters that can’t travel to the United States amid the COVID-19 Pandemic. The event has a star-studded card that includes very important matches, but the main event is what people are excited for the most, as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje will fight in a title unification bout to determine the undisputed Lightweight Champion of the World.
The match is very emotional especially because this will be Khabib Nurmagomedov’s first match since his father, Abdulmanap, passed away from complications caused by COVID-19. Abdulmanap is best known as the father and trainer of UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but he’s much more than that. He’s been helping to raise the level of participation and training in his home country of Dagestan to a point where it has become a global powerhouse in MMA. BT Sports created a very emotional animated video to pay tribute to the MMA Legend and highlight his special relationship with his son.
The video shows the hill above Khabib’s village that he used to run up every day for training, a reference to the infamous bear wrestling video, which showed a young Khabib wrestling a brown Dagestani bear, and much more!
A win over Justin will take the undefeated Khabib to a score of 29-0, one step closer to the career goal set by his father, to finish his career undefeated with 30-0. As there is no debate that Justin is the underdog in this fight, he is still considered to be Khabib’s toughest challenge yet. Khabib was supposed to fight Tony Furgeson back in March, but the match was canceled due to COVID-19, and Khabib was replaced by Justin Gaethje. The beating that Justin gave to Tony made him take the number one contender spot and be next in line to face Khabib.