{"id":551190,"date":"2026-03-19T19:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551190\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T19:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:38:09","slug":"alexander-volkanovski-ranks-khabib-nurmagomedov-high-on-goat-list-amid-ufc-resume-debate-hes-still-right-up-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/551190\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski ranks Khabib Nurmagomedov high on GOAT list amid UFC resume debate: &#8220;He&#8217;s still right up there&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Volkanovski understands the UFC resume debate on Khabib Nurmagomedov, but he still holds \u201cThe Eagle\u201d in high regard.<\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov retired as the UFC Lightweight Champion and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/ufc\/javier-mendez-shocked-khabib-nurmagomedov-retired-confirms-the-champ-is-done\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">walked away from MMA competition with a record of 29-0<\/a>. While he defeated the likes of Conor McGregor, Justin Gaethje, and Dustin Poirier, some find it hard to put him at the top of the all-time list due to the accomplishments others have reached since his retirement.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, Volkanovski took to his <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/Tei3zbsslFY?si=Tv82GynlzEKlzQoc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">YouTube channel<\/a> to acknowledge that he thinks Nurmagomedov could\u2019ve reached new heights if he stuck around (via <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/03\/18\/alexander-volkanovski-khabib-nurmagomedov-ufc-goat-discussion\/89207130007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MMAJunkie<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKhabib could have easily done it,\u201d Volkanovski said. \u201cYou could just do it because of the fact that he was undefeated, but I don\u2019t care about undefeated. I care about who you fought. The way he won was so dominant. Even though he doesn\u2019t have as good a resume as some of the others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven Charles (Oliveira) has got as many wins as him, but he\u2019s got other losses. Khabib was clearly dominant in them fights, didn\u2019t take much damage, and looked much better than his opponents. Even though I believe in resume heavily, he\u2019s still right up there because of how he did it. I think Islam\u2019s got him resume wise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nurmagomedov said he made the decision to retire at the request of his mother. \u201cThe Eagle\u201d also found it difficult to continue his MMA career after the passing of his father, Abdulmanap.<\/p>\n<p>Despite retiring during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nurmagomedov remains an important figure in MMA today. He coaches several notable fighters who are close to him, such as Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov.<\/p>\n<p>Where do you rank Khabib Nurmagomedov on your all-time great list? Does Nurmagomedov\u2019s placement take a hit due to his early retirement? Share your stance on \u201cThe Eagle\u2019s\u201d position on the GOAT list below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Volkanovski understands the UFC resume debate on Khabib Nurmagomedov, but he still holds \u201cThe Eagle\u201d in high&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-551190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551190","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=551190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}