UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the most dominant forces in the history of MMA, but has ominously suggested he has sometimes gone easy on his opponents to avoid doing even more damage.
Khabib stands 28-0 in professional MMA and has rarely looked troubled inside the cage.
But despite his dominance, the Dagestani grappling phenom has suggested that on occasion he has held back.
“I had fights in my career where I understood that I could hurt my opponent more, but I’d talk to him, tell him to give up so that I don’t beat him too hard,” Khabib told a group of schoolchildren in Russia.
“For example, if I had a painful hold where I could break something, I wouldn’t tighten it all the way, it’d just fix it so that the opponent would tap out.
“Because I have no aim to hurt anyone in this sport. Yes, we compete in a very brutal sport.”
Khabib had earlier been asked which of his 28 victories had brought him the most pleasure –leading him to suggest, somewhat unsurprisingly, that it had been his fourth-round submission of Irish nemesis Conor McGregor at UFC 229 in Las Vegas in 2018.
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“Recently I haven’t had that. In the last couple of years I’ve gone out there and won and it doesn’t bring me any real joy to be honest.
“Well, with the exception of one fight, let’s say. In that fight I beat that guy with pleasure, I’ll tell you. In that fight, I beat that man with pleasure,” Khabib added.