UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov recently took a moment to reflect on his jaw-droppingly dominant victory over Abel Trujillo, which occurred seven years ago today, at UFC 160.
Nurmagomedov defeated Trujillo by unanimous decision, landing a record-shattering 21 of his 28 attempted takedowns in the process. Interestingly, the lightweight champ says he entered this fight with a debilitating injury, which was part of the reason he exercised such a grappling-heavy game plan.
See what he had to say about this incredible victory below:
“At this fight, which happened 7 years ago, I placed a record in #UFC 21 takedowns in single fight. Month before the fight I injured my knee and wasn’t able to take opponents back. Decision to make was very simple: just grab and throw your opponent for 15 minutes straight. If there is a desire, there will always be a solution.”
Since his win over Trujillo, Khabib Nurmagomedov has produced eight more decisive Octagon wins.
In 2018, he captured the vacant lightweight title with a decision win over last-minute replacement opponent Al Iaquinta. Since then, he’s defended the belt with a pair of submission wins over Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.
Now 28-0 overall, he was expected to defend his belt against Tony Ferguson in April, but ended up getting stuck in Russia due to travel restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic. Ferguson wound up losing to Justin Gaethje in a short-notice interim title fight. Gaethje is now expected to get the next crack at Nurmagomedov, and will no doubt be keen to avoid the undefeated lightweight champ’s smothering grappling attack.