It’s been 14 years since the fighter\u00a0most consider to be one of the greatest of all time made his UFC debut.<\/p>\n
And by matter of coincidence, on the same card, the UFC’s now long-running lead play-by-play\u00a0voice made his live event debut with the promotion.<\/p>\n
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On Jan. 20, 2012, the UFC set up shop at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., for the second time in promotion history. UFC on FX 1 was the promotion’s second show under a broadcast deal with FOX that started one event earlier at UFC 142 in Brazil.<\/p>\n
The event itself was fairly formulaic. In the main event, Jim Miller submitted Melvin Guillard. Josh Neer submitted Duane Ludwig in the co-feature.<\/p>\n
But among a lot of also-rans and mostly forgettable names on the prelims, there was one who stood out: Khabib Nurmagomedov.<\/p>\n
The future UFC lightweight champion and arguably the proverbial GOAT\u00a0at 155 pounds, Nurmagomedov submitted Kamal Shalorus in the third round with a rear-naked\u00a0choke. Amazingly, it was not only Nurmagomedov’s UFC debut \u2013 but fight week in Nashville was his first time in the United States.<\/p>\n
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Nine fights after that debut, and a little more than six years later, Nurmagomedov won the vacant lightweight title against Al Iaquinta \u2013\u00a0who remains the only fighter to go 25 minutes with the ex-champ, who retired in 2020 at 29-0 after only four title fights.<\/p>\n
Check out highlights from Nurmagomedov’s win over Shalorus above, called by Anik in their shared UFC debut.<\/p>\n