Everyone, even Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s most ardent fans will admit that ‘The Eagle’ retired too soon. After all, the former lightweight phenom was seemingly in the prime of his career and looked set to continue his undefeated run for many years to come. However, his father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, passed abruptly in 2020 due to COVID-19. And his mother made Khabib promise that he would not fight anymore.

Being a man of his word, Khabib retired right after his UFC 254 clash against Justin Gaethje. At least that is what everyone thinks. But Sean O’Malley‘s coach, Tim Welch thinks there may also have been another reason ‘The Eagle’ called it quits. He pointed towards the grueling weight cuts Nurmagomedov had to go through. In fact, all this retirement talk even got ‘Suga’ mulling his own retirement, leading to a surprising revelation from him as we will see later.

“What people don’t talk about what no one talks about is people retire because they don’t want to make that weight cut. That’s a big reason a lot of these guys retire, which is, I mean it’s kind of true. You’re so used to cutting 30-35 pounds that gets f***ing old when you’re doing that three times a year… You don’t understand the discipline you have to have to cut 30-35 pounds off your body… Like Khabib, he walks around clean 200,” Welch said on the ‘TimboSuga Show’ podcast.

“Yeah but he also retired,” O’Malley interjected, which led the coach to speculate that his retirement may have been “because he probably doesn’t want to make 155.” This led the former 135lbs champ to set the record straight.

“I think, his mom and dad like that was a real thing. Like his mom said ‘no more fighting’ and he said ‘okay,'” ‘Suga’ clarified. Welch couldn’t help but point out Khabib “was only 32” at the time he retired. O’Malley, who is 30 years old right now, found Khabib’s retirement “weird” since “that is like two years from now [for me].” 

This actually got the former champ wondering about his retirement and he concluded that “things change too. Like I could be completely done with this s**t [in two years].” For ‘Suga’ to retire in 2 years, things would have to go horribly wrong for the rainbow-haired striker. After all, the former champ looks set to compete for the belt pretty soon and then will undoubtedly look to leave behind a legacy for the ages.

Merab Dvalishvili floats early 2025 rematch with Sean O’Malley

Merab Dvalishvili not only defeated Sean O’Malley’s game in their UFC 306 clash but also exposed the holes in ‘Suga’s game. After all, ‘The Machine’ essentially ragdolled O’Malley in their historic ‘Sphere’ clash to become the new bantamweight champ. Of course, the Georgian is set to defend his title against #1 ranked Umar Nuramgomedov at UFC 311 next month. After this, the champ has expressed his desire to rematch O’Malley.

“I’m fighting early, on January 18, and I wanna be busy. I know O’Malley wants to come back in April, I think Petr will be ready in March. So, maybe fight Petr in March, rematch Sean in April,” Dvalishvili said in a recent interview. This means that ‘Suga’ will have the chance to avenge his loss and regain the title early next year. If that fight actually happens that is.

After a loss as O’Malley took from Dvalishvili, most fighters have to scrap it out with another top contender before getting a rematch. Not to mention ‘Suga’ himself may not want to fight the champ so soon. After all, he needs better takedown defense to deal with the unstoppable and relentless ground game of the current division kingpin.

Either way, one thing could be said for certain. O’Malley is still a long way from retiring. Unless he gets a devastating injury or his body just gives up on him. What do you think about Sean O’Malley’s thoughts about his retirement?