Ever since Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s retirement, there have been rumors about his comeback. Dana White, too, tried his best to get the Russian back for one last fight in the UFC, so that he could even out his record to 30-0. That was his late father Abdulmanap’s dream as well. None of this materialized. But what about a debut in boxing? 

During his Aug. 25 appearance on the ‘Inspire Me’ podcast, the host inquired whether the prospect of a boxing match against someone like Mayweather excited Nurmagomedov. What did ‘The Eagle’ say?

“Right now, no. Right now, you know, it’s like everybody know, I am not boxer,” he shared. With this, he also refused a payday, which could be as big as $100 million. It’s clear that ‘The Eagle’ isn’t trying to take the route his rival Conor McGregor took to pursue the massive rewards of a Mayweather bout, which earned the Irishman a reported estimate of $130 million for their 2017 encounter. 

Despite being known primarily for his wrestling, the former champ also raised an issue with those who underestimated his striking game. “Lot of people, when they watch my striking game, they think, ‘okay, I can catch him’. But when they go to the cage they understand, my distance, my fakes, my speed, how I mix wrestling and striking, this is little bit different than they think before.”

With 29 professional bouts in MMA and 13 of them in the UFC, the Russian fighter didn’t bleed a single time in the octagon. He highlighted this aspect to show his dominance. But why are we suddenly talking about Khabib Nurmagomedov in connection to boxing? Well, that’s because years ago, the MMA fighter himself issued a challenge to Floyd Mayweather.

Back in 2020, ‘The Eagle’ had made a bold call-out with a twist. The challenge? “[We can do] 11 rounds of boxing and 1 round of MMA. 11 rounds of 3 minutes before the last round, the 12th round, five minutes of MMA… Five minutes with me [and] I’m going to take him down and maul this guy,” a supremely confident Nurmagomedov had proclaimed. He even started getting $100 million offers from Saudi Arabia to make this happen.

Well, the matchup never took place, but it seems there was a time Mayweather ‘begged’ for a fight against the MMA fighter.

Could Floyd Mayweather versus Khabib Nurmagomedov have happened?

Remember how Conor McGregor and Mayweather fought each other in 2017? Well, the Irishman and Nurmagomedov clashed in 2018. During both instances, ‘The Notorious’ faced defeat. However, weeks after UFC 229 was done, Nurmagomedov’s manager made some revelations to TMZ Sports. “Me and him have been texting each other for the last month… He’s very much begging for the fight.”

Mayweather then responded on social media and reminded everyone that he was ready to face any challenge. “CBS, Showtime and MGM Grand get the checkbook out! Go to @leonardellerbe ‘s page to view Khabib Nurmagomedov challenging me,” he wrote on X.

Abdelaziz was confident his friend would taste victory against Mayweather, which a lot of people disagreed with. After all, despite boxing being McGregor’s best skill, he couldn’t outclass ‘Pretty Boy’. And Khabib Nurmagomedov’s strong point was his wrestling, which would be of no use in the square circle. Now obviously, the bout never took place, but do you know what else never took place? Khabib Nurmagomedov’s fight against Tony Ferguson!

Known as one of the most cursed fights, Nurmagomedov versus Ferguson was canceled a whopping five times. People thought ‘El Cucuy’ would be the one to finally stop the Dagestani’s dominance in the UFC’s lightweight division, but injuries, weight-cut issues, and COVID-19 just didn’t allow the matchup to materialize. That’s sad, don’t you think?