Khabib Nurmagomedov’s plan to retire at UFC 254 apparently was shared only with a select few. As it turned out, that group didn’t include his head coach.
American Kickboxing Academy’s Javier Mendez ran Nurmagomedov’s corner for his UFC 254 win over Justin Gaethje this past Saturday and was as surprised as anyone to learn that the undefeated lightweight champion was calling time on his career.
“I learned about it when he was giving the speech,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “My jaw dropped. I was like, ‘What?!’ I mean, he played the best poker face on the planet.
“All of this was a total shock to me. I was going, ‘Oh man, father’s plan. Great.’ But mother’s plan works in the end as his mother’s wish was for him not to fight without his father, and that’s what he did. And, you know, respect.”
Mendez said he’s all too aware of the short-term nature of a combat sports career and suggested the surprising timing of Nurmagomedov’s announcement showed just how important his family is to him.
“This sport is not a longevity sport. It’s come in, come out, and he’s coming out at the time that he feels is the right time for himself and his family,” Mendez said. “Obviously me, myself, I would have liked him to go 30-0 like his father wished, but he loves his mother so much and his family that he decided that no, it’s time.
“And financially, he’s set. So, he’s not a greedy man. And you guys know, as well as I know, that if he hung out one more fight, it would have been a monster payday. But obviously, family means more to him than money in everything he does.”
Mendez also said that, following Nurmagmedov’s announcement, the only advice he had left for the retiring champion was simply to let go of all of the emotions that had been bottled up through a tragic, turbulent time in the 32-year-old’s life.
“Look at all the tears in the end. He was crying a lot,” Mendez said. “Really, that was a lot of emotion, a lot of sorrow. And I just went up to him and said, ‘I love you’ and ‘Cry. Go ahead, let it all out.’
“He deserved it. He bottled that up, man. He bottled that up. That was all bottled up inside, and it drove him to what he did. It was like he said, ‘Coach, my toe is broken, but my mind is not.’ That just goes to explain how powerful the mind is and how powerful his mind was. I always knew that as long as this man had the faith in himself, in his family, in his religion, that he could never be broken.”
Coach Javier Mendez admits surprise at timing of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement