Holy shit is it padded. Im gonna copy and paste this article I just read and give the link but my god this dude shouldnt be spoke of as highly as he is especially considering how little he fights.
http://www.punditarena.com/mmaufc/dodonovan/opinion-khabib-nurmagomedovs-mma-record-is-extremely-padded-and-absolutely-baffling/
The ‘padded’ record first came to my attention when Tony Ferguson criticised his would-be opponent about it in an interview with Fox Sports back in December 2016.
Ferguson said:
“I’ll take his 24-0 record, it’s fu*king padded dude. Look at some of the legit fights he’s had then look at mine. I’ll take my record over his any day. His record is so padded. He’s a paper champ. Get out of here.”
This persistent bashing of Khabib’s record intrigued me enough to research his 16 fights leading up to his UFC debut.
What I found certainly justified Ferguson’s claims of a ‘padded record’.
1-0
Nurmagomedov made his professional debut in 2008 against Vusal Bayramov, an Azerbaijani who was 0-0 at the time and eventually amassed a record of 2-5.
All the losses that Bayramov suffered during a short two-year career came inside the distance.
2-0
Next up for Khabib was a man so bad they named him twice, Magomed Magomedov. It was a fight in itself just to find a database on this Russian with no age or height even known.
Magomedov was four fights into his career when he fought Khabib. He was on a four-fight losing streak and all of those defeats came inside the distance. Magomedov finished his career with a negative record of 4-6.
3-0
Khabib’s third fight was against fellow Russian, Ramazan Kurbanismailov. Another inexperienced competitor with only one fight to his name. Nurmagomedov won by unanimous decision and his opponent is currently 5-3-2, which more closely resembles a defensive-minded formation on FIFA than a decent fighter’s record.
4-0
In his fourth bout, Nurmagomedov took a considerable step-up in competition considering his previous opponents, fighting a man who was 2-0. Shamil Abdulkerimov was defeated by Khabib via unanimous decision and only fought four more times thereafter, finishing up with a mediocre record of 4-3. His only claim to fame being that he once featured on an Emelianenko undercard. Unfortunately for Abdulkerimov it wasn’t the legendary Fedor, it was his lesser known brother, Aleksander.
5-0
His fifth fight is laughable. Nurmagomedov faced Said Akhmed, who was making his debut at the time. Akhmed lost by first round TKO and has not fought since. He ended his ‘career’ 0-1, which begs the question; was this guy even a legitimate fighter or just someone they literally dragged in off the street?
6-0
The Dagestani continued to be matched up against newcomers in his sixth fight where he fought Eldar Eldarov, who was 1-0 at the time. Eldarov has earned some credibility though, winning seven straight fights since losing to Nurmagomedov, taking his record to 8-1.
7-0
The recurring theme of favourable match-ups was evident once again in Nurmagomedov’s seventh outing as he faced Shahbulat Shamhalaev, who only had two fights under his belt at the time. Khabib dispatched of his inexperienced opponent in the first round via kimura.
8-0
Nurmagomedov went 8-0 after beating another unproven opponent in Ali Bagov, who was 2-1 at the time and coming off a submission loss. One must question why a seven-fight streaking Khabib was paired against such a green opponent coming off a loss.
Bagov can best be described as a journeyman fighter, as he went on to accumulate a lacklustre record of 23-10 with an 80 per cent TKO loss rate.
9-0
Khabib extended his winning streak to nine by beating another subpar opponent in Vitaliy Ostrovskiy. The Belarussian came into the fight 3-3, with two of his victories coming against an opponent with 28 losses (20 by submission) and the other against a fighter with a 1-2 record. Top class opposition indeed. Ostrovskiy didn’t fare much better after losing to Khabib as he lost six of his next seven fights and seven of eleven overall before retiring with an 8-11 record.