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“What if There Was No Towel?”- Khabib Nurmagomedov Finally Answers Controversy Around Justin Gaethje Fight Weight-Cut

Published 09/11/2021, 10:00 AM EDT

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Khabib Nurmagomedov is inarguably one of the greatest fighters of all time. ‘The Eagle’ has been one of the most dominating champions in UFC history and has a professional MMA record of (29-0). While Nurmagomedov achieved much success throughout his career, there were various instances when the fighter was involved in some controversy.

One such controversy happened during the weigh-ins for the UFC 254 event. Nurmagomedov was all set to defend his UFC title against Gaethje at UFC 254. However, before the event, there was much talk about how Nurmagomedov had missed weight but was still allowed to compete.

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Many people believed that Nurmagomedov did not make weight, and the UFC rigged the weighing machine. However, Nurmagomedov’s team was quick to respond and shut down all such allegations. Now recently, during a press conference, ‘The Eagle’ himself talked about the incident. He said, “If guys like you don’t keep asking, how will people know? I was weighed 3 times.”

“There’s a video on my YouTube channel of me cutting weight. I was weighed then. You can see by how I looked that I was 155lbs, not 200. When someone reaches a certain level of success, there’ll be people criticizing him. They need something to talk about, so they look for it.”

via Getty

“What if there was no towel? They’d still find something. It doesn’t bother me, because I know I made weight. UFC checks you twice before you weigh in. I’m totally clean.”

What happened in the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje?

While the controversy of Nurmagomedov missing weight did make the headline, it did not stop the fight. ‘The Eagle’ and ‘The Highlight’ did face each other at the event and performed admirably.

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Prior to the fight, many believed Gaethje’s striking capabilities could be too much for Nurmagomedov to handle and that ‘The Highlight’ could become the first man to defeat ‘The Eagle’. However, that did not happen as even though Gaethje gave it his all, Nurmagomedov dug deep and won the fight via a 2nd round submission.

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Following this fight, Nurmagomedov retired from MMA and has since shown no desire to return to the Octagon.

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What did you think of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s weigh-in controversy? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by:

Paras Pande

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Paras Pande is a UFC author at EssentiallySports who is pursuing his graduation in Journalism and Mass Communication. An ardent follower of the UFC, he has been covering the sport for 2 years now. Before joining the team at EssentiallySports, Paras gained expertise as an MMA writer whilst working with Sportskeeda.
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