Khabib Nurmagomedov May Become The First Muslim UFC Champion At UFC 209

Conor McGregor may have the Irish on his side, but UFC lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov is starting to draw a huge fanbase from a much bigger pool of the population: the 1.6 billion Muslims on earth. Khabib has been a pretty big deal in the Russian MMA scene for a while, but in a recent episode of UFC Embedded leading up to his UFC 209 interim lightweight title fight against Tony Ferguson on March 4th, his gym was overrun by Muslim fans of many nations.

“I am so surprised about this!” an elated Nurmagomedov says in the video. “This is not just about me. It is about everybody, it is for us. On 4 March I want to become the first Muslim UFC champion.”

That’s correct: while the worlds of boxing and kickboxing are full of Muslim title holders, the UFC has yet to crown its first Muslim champion. Khabib has an opportunity to change that this weekend.

It would be a bit of an understatement to say Muslim-Americans have had a bit of a hard ride over the past few years, culminating in the election of President Trump and his subsequent travel ban on several Muslim majority countries. And while Khabib Nurmagomedov and his family are from the Dagestani region of Russian, that didn’t stop the United States from refusing his father a visa to corner his son at UFC 209. Between the constant stream of bad press and a worrisome increases in hate crimes, having a guy like Khabib carrying the flags for Muslims in MMA has made him a positive rallying point for many people.

Khabib is pretty serious about his religion too. A title shot probably would have come earlier in his career if he was willing to take a fight during Ramadan. Most recently that restriction cost him a fight at UFC 200 … not a small card you just decide to skip on a whim. But fortunately, Khabib is just as strong as his faith, beating down all his opponents in the cage to the tune of a 24-0 record. In his last fight against Michael Johnson, he alternated between pummeling his opponent bloody, telling him to quit, and demanding a title shot from UFC president Dana White. All as the fight unfolded inside the cage.

That brings us to UFC 209 this Saturday March 4th, where he takes on Tony Ferguson for the interim version of Conor McGregor’s lightweight title belt. The UFC is hoping that having another lightweight champion floating around will convince McGregor to step back into the Octagon to unify the belts. But for Conor, the fact that Nurmagomedov has a rapidly growing fanbase of rabid fans may be the bigger deciding factor. If Khabib manages to take Tony Ferguson out in the same impressive fashion as his past opponents, the UFC may have another fighter with enough star power to intrigue the brash Irishman.

Now we’ll just leave you with footage of Khabib as a child wrestling a bear. Because that’s how hardcore things are when you grow up training MMA in Dagestan.

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