It’s been 14 years since the man considered one of the greatest boxers of all time made his UFC debut.
Coincidentally, on the same card, the UFC’s longtime play-by-play voice made his live event debut with the promotion.
advertise
On January 20, 2012, the UFC set up shop at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee for only the second time in its promotion’s history. UFC on FX 1 is the promotion’s second show under its broadcast deal with FOX, which earlier kicked off with an event at UFC 142 in Brazil.
The event itself is rather formulaic. In the main event, Jim Miller defeated Melvin Guillard. Josh Neer recommends Duane Ludwig for co-feature film role.
But among the many lost and mostly forgotten names in the preliminaries, one stood out: Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The future UFC lightweight champion and arguably the proverbial 155-pound GOAT, Nurmagomedov defeated Kamal Shalorus with a rear-naked choke in the third round. Surprisingly, not only is this Nurmagomedov’s UFC debut, but Nashville Fight Week is also his first time in the United States.
advertise
After his debut, nine fights and a little over six years later, Nurmagomedov won the vacant lightweight title against Al Iaquinta – who remains the only fighter to go 25 minutes with the former champ, who retired with a 29-0 record in 2020 after just four title fights.
Check out the highlights above from Nurmagomedov’s victory over Shalorus, who Anik called in their joint UFC debut.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: This Day in MMA History: Khabib, Anik Debut at UFC Nashville in 2012