Khabib Nurmagomedov walk around weight: How heavy is the Dagestani fighter in between fights?
Khabib Nurmagomedov fights in the 155-pounds division of UFC and has been the lightweight champion for almost three years now. However, despite announcing his retirement after UFC 254, the UFC still hasn't stripped him of the belt in hope of a comeback.
But when he is not fighting, the Dagestani fighter weighs around 187 pounds. Ahead of a lightweight bout, during the fight camp, Khabib Nurmagomedov weighs between 168 lbs.to 175 lbs., till 5 days before, when the final process of cutting down to 155 starts.
Anyone who follows MMA knows that the last few pounds are the hardest to lose. In fact, Khabib Nurmagomedov has had apparent difficulty in two or three fights in his career to cut down all the way to 155 pounds, including in his latest outing against Justin Gaethje.
What went wrong with the UFC 254 weigh-in of Khabib Nurmagomedov
Except for one occasion, 'The Eagle' has officially weighed in at 155 pounds for all the fights he stepped onto the scale for. However, he has a record of succumbing to the grueling process of weight cutting.
The one time Khabib Nurmagomedov missed weight was at UFC 160 against Abel Trujillo, where he was 2.5 pounds over the lightweight limit. Instead of taking the 2 hours to cut weight, Khabib surrendered 20% of his fight purse to his opponent and fought at catchweight to secure a decision win.
Khabib Nurmagomedov succumbed again to a brutal weight cut and had to be hospitalized before his UFC 209 fight with Tony Ferguson in 2017. 'The Eagle' had passed out in his hotel room because of severe dehydration and kidney issues.
More recently, at the UFC 254 weigh-ins, Khabib Nurmagomedov looked visibly exhausted and drained, and had to stand behind a towel to make weight. He also looked relieved when the official weight was announced to be 155 pounds. Afterwards, he released a video of his weight cut, in which Khabib was seen passed out on the floor out of dehydration.
There was a huge controversy surrounding the weigh in as well, since the official was seen making the weight reading before it could stabilize.
Mike Dolce, a long-time combat sports nutritionist pointed it out that something very "disturbing" happened at the UFC 254 weigh-ins and the scale inspector made a "massive mistake that's maybe worth tens of millions of dollars".
Dolce explained
"(The beam is going in an) upwards trajectory, and it has to balance. It’s going up. That means he’s heavy, and (the official) wipes it there as it’s still on its way up. It doesn’t bounce and doesn’t stabilize in the center. That’s not correct."