Michael Bisping explains how Khabib Nurmagomedov took himself out of the MMA GOAT conversation

Michael Bisping explained how former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov took himself out of the MMA GOAT conversation.

Nurmagomedov is considered one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time as he went 29-0 in his amazing MMA career, including 13-0 in the UFC. However, he decided to walk away from the sport following his submission win over Justin Gaethje last year. Despite being only 33 years old, in his prime, and undefeated, “The Eagle” decided that it was time to hang up his gloves. But as far as Bisping goes, Nurmagomedov retiring so early means that he has taken himself out of the conversation for the greatest MMA fighter of all time.

Speaking on “The Pain Game” podcast, Bisping explained why he believes Nurmagomedov isn’t the GOAT in MMA. As far as “The Count” goes,” when you stack up what Nurmagomedov did against the likes of Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, and Georges St-Pierre, those other fighters fought a higher level of competition for a much longer time period.

“Yeah, he took himself out of it. And if you look, yeah, he didn’t fight the best until the end of his career. When you compare that with GSP or Jones or Anderson, their run against world-class competition was far longer. But for Khabib, I know it was because of his father passing away, and he made a promise to his mother. So, it’s different circumstances,” Bisping said (h/t SportsKeeda).

“But for those reasons, I think when you look at the resumes, even though he was undefeated, the resumes don’t really stack up. And I say that with tremendous respect to Khabib – Far being from me to downplay his career because I would never dream of doing that.”

Do you agree with Michael Bisping that Khabib Nurmagomedov took himself out of the MMA GOAT conversation?