{"id":13419,"date":"2025-07-22T12:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/13419\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T12:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T12:56:07","slug":"khabib-nurmagomedov-insists-jon-jones-is-long-past-his-prime-after-mma-retirement-and-quick-u-turn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/13419\/","title":{"rendered":"Khabib Nurmagomedov insists Jon Jones is \u2018long past\u2019 his prime after MMA retirement and quick U-turn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Khabib Nurmagomedov believes that Jon Jones\u2019 decision to retire was the right one. <\/p>\n<p>\u2018The Eagle\u2019 retired at the top of his game after <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/01\/13\/khabib-nurmagomedov-ate-punches-from-hardest-hitting-opponent-before-slick-takedown-brutal-choke-and-shock-announcement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">choking out Justin Gaethje<\/a> at UFC 254 in October 2020.<\/p>\n<p>No other UFC fighter has ever managed to walk away with a perfect record like Khabib Nurmagomedov. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/jon-jones\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"351\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Jones<\/a>, whose only loss came via a <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2024\/11\/08\/i-was-devastated-jon-jones-recalls-the-night-he-lost-his-undefeated-record-for-breaking-rule-that-is-now-changed\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">controversial DQ<\/a> in a fight he was dominating, seemed to have essentially repeated the feat when he <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/06\/21\/tom-aspinall-is-officially-ufc-heavyweight-champion-as-dana-white-confirms-jon-jones-has-retired\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced his MMA retirement<\/a> last month. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2185190668-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Jon Jones speaking to Joe Rogan at UFC 309\" class=\"wp-image-220000\" \/>Photo by Jeff Bottari\/Zuffa LLCKhabib Nurmagomedov reacts to Jon Jones retirement drama<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/07\/10\/jon-jones-reveals-the-reason-for-his-ufc-retirement-u-turn-as-he-hints-tom-aspinall-fight-could-be-back-on\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Jones quickly U-turned<\/a> on his retirement decision when it was revealed that the UFC is going to hold an event at the White House in July 2026. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/khabib-nurmagomedov\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"259\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Khabib Nurmagomedov<\/a> recently suggested that the consensus greatest fighter of all time should\u2019ve stuck to his retirement. <\/p>\n<p>The former UFC lightweight champion believes Jones is over the hill and has been for several years. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, he\u2019s like 38 now,\u201d Nurmagomedov said when asked about Jones retiring on the Hustle Show. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut, no, he\u2019s been gone for a while. Let\u2019s be honest. How many fights has he had in the last five years? <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne or two in the last five years. He\u2019s been done for a while. Even those last [light heavyweight] fights \u2013 [Thiago] Santos and [Dominick] Reyes \u2013 they were controversial. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, his prime was clearly behind him. Then he fought Ciryl Gane. I think they just gave him the money. That\u2019s it. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone has their prime, and his was long past.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Khabib Nurmagomedov clarifies Jon Jones relationship <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/06\/23\/khabib-nurmagomedov-supports-jon-jones-shock-ufc-retirement-with-heartfelt-message\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Khabib Nurmagomedov supported Jon Jones<\/a> with a heartfelt message immediately after he announced his UFC retirement. <\/p>\n<p>It came as a surprise to many due to the Russian icon\u2019s strong friendship with Jones\u2019 greatest rival, <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/tag\/daniel-cormier\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"284\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daniel Cormier<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov cleared up the confusion when asked to explain his relationship with \u2018Bones\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not friends,\u201d he clarified, before speaking about his respect for Jones as an athlete.<\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov added: \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to compare anyone to Jon Jones.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a fighter, I never had questions about him. He\u2019s a great fighter. No one can deny that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike we said earlier, achievements and numbers speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Khabib Nurmagomedov believes that Jon Jones\u2019 decision to retire was the right one. \u2018The Eagle\u2019 retired at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,11877,15058,785,85,787],"class_list":["post-13419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-jon-jones","tag-khabib-nurmagomedov","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}