Khabib’s Wife Patimat Nurmagomedov: Wedding Ceremony, Kids, and All About UFC Legend’s Personal Life

No one, except for Khabib Nurmagomedov, and their families, has ever seen his wife’s face. Patimat Nurmagomedov married Khabib in 2013, when a 22-year-old ‘The Eagle’ was already making a name for himself in the UFC, and had started his journey towards becoming the biggest Muslim and Russian star in the sport. The former UFC lightweight champ prefers to keep his personal life private, and as such, not much is known about his wife and kids.

As the former lightweight champion and one of the greatest ever gets ready to corner his childhood friend and protégé, Islam Makhachev after two long years at UFC 302 on June 1, we take a look at everything we know about ‘The Eagle’s wife and kids.

Everything we know about Khabib Nurmagomedov’s wife and kids

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s wife, Patimat, is one of his distant cousins and even shared the same last name- Nurmagomedov- before their wedding. Both of them hail from the tiny, 200-people-strong Dagestani hamlet of Sildi, where everybody knows everybody. It was in school that the mixed martial artist first met Patimat and instantly took a liking to her. However, soon after they met, his family moved to another village, before eventually settling in the province’s (or Republic’s as they are called in Russia) capital of Makhachkala.

The reason behind Nurmagomedov’s secrecy around his family is the Islamic faith. A devout Muslim, Nurmagomedov, following the stipulations of orthodox Islamic practice, which dictates that a woman cannot be seen without a veil by anybody except her closest relatives, prefers to keep his wife hidden away.

Khabib’s late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov once confirmed this in an interview with Sport Express, saying: “A husband tells his wife to cover herself and she does. Her beauty should belong only to her husband. It is not a matter for discussion today, everything was decided 400 years ago.” 

Khabib’s dedication to his faith is reflected in his children’s names as well. The couple has three children, on whom ‘The Eagle dotes: a girl named after the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima, 9; and two boys- Magomed, 6 (the Russian version of the Prophet Muhammad’s name, as well as the name of Khabib’s grandfather), and Husayn, 4, whose namesake was the beloved grandson of the Prophet.

So much does the Dagestani former martial artist love his children that he divorced himself completely from the sport, and early last year, decided to no longer even coach other fighters (as he had continued to do after retiring as a fighter in 2020). This, he declared, was because he wasn’t able to focus on his family, which he has decided would be his primary area of focus going forward (although he does make an exception to coach and corner Islam Makhachev’s title fights). And it is the fame and respect he and his father command that saw him have such an extraordinary wedding.

Khabib and Patimat’s epic wedding with 4000 guests

While the couple leads a peaceful life with their kids and the rest of their family in Dagestan, their wedding was quite a wild affair. The wedding invitation simply said, “Anyone who would like to come to offer their congratulations- please come!” And that is exactly what happened, to the surprise of ‘The Eagle’ and his family.

Nurmagomedov, as we have mentioned, was already emerging as a star owing to his dominant and impressive performance in the UFC, which, combined with the invitation, led to around 4,000 people coming to the wedding as a show of respect and to offer congratulations of the nuptials. This put the family in a sticky situation as they were expecting far less people, leading them to change the wedding venue to a bigger location.

In addition, given the unexpectedly high amount of guests, the Nurmagomedovs had to change the guest list three times to properly and adequately accommodate all the wedding guests. However, given the respect Khabib and his father commanded in Dagestan, they were offered many, many discounts, and the wedding, after everything was said and done, cost the family around $21k (or 700k rubles), a paltry sum for an event of that magnitude.

Were you aware of Khabib hosting 4000 guests at his wedding? Let us know in the comments.