Morning Report: Khabib Nurmagomedov interested in football career: ‘This is my first love’

While the rest of the MMA world is preoccupied with shifting to boxing to fight YouTubers, Khabib Nurmagomedov is going in an entirely different direction: looking to compete with his feet instead of his hands.

Last October, Nurmagomedov retired from MMA following his successful title defense against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. Since then, Khabib has been keeping busy pursuing other business venture and dabbling in coaching, but in a recent Q&A on Facebook, the former UFC lightweight champion and global superstar revealed he is considering another athletic venture: a transition to professional football.

“If some clubs, they offer me, they make me interesting (offer), I’m gonna accept this,” Khabib said when asked about his interest in football. “Football is, for me, best sport…. Football is on another level. MMA, I like MMA, I like fighting. I like competition with people, with best fighters in the world. But football, for me, is, like, best sport.”

Nurmagomedov’s love of football is well-documented having played the sport since he was a small child and earlier this year, Khabib joked about being a free agent. That joke is becoming a little more serious now though as apparently the former UFC champion has been approached by some teams about playing.

“A lot of football clubs, they offer me, but I have to little bit become football shape because football shape is little bit different than MMA,” Khabib said. “When you have to fight in MMA, when we have to play in football, this is two different (sports). But if some clubs, they offer me, like, they make me (interested), I’m gonna accept this because this is my childhood dream. I love football. I follow football since when I was kid, when I was child. This is my first love.”

Nurmagomedov has reportedly received interest from third-tier Russian football clubs Dynamo Legion and FC Kamza.

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The Khabib-Michael Jordan parallels are really becoming wild. Just imagine, after the death of his father, Khabib retires from MMA and then pursues his childhood dream of professional football. After a year or so, he gets the itch again and returns to MMA, beats wholesale ass for a couple years, and then retires again. The stars are all aligning.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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