Javier Mendez, AKA founder and head coach to UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, returned recently to Submission Radio and declared himself dumbfounded by the champ’s retirement immediately following his victory over interim titleholder Justin Gaethje. 

I learned about it when he was giving the speech. My jaw dropped, he professed. I was like, what? I mean, he played the best poker face on the planet.

All of this was a total shock to me. I was going, oh man, Father’s plan, great but Mother’s plan works in the end. As his mother’s wish was for him not to fight without his father, and that’s what he did. And, you know, respect. This sport is not a longevity sport, it’s come in, come out. And he’s coming out at the time that he feels is the right time for himself and his family. 

Obviously me myself, I would have liked him to go 30-0, like his father wished. But he loves his mother so much and his family, that he decided that no, it’s time. And financially he’s set. So, he’s not a greedy man. And you guys know as well as I know, that if he hung out one more fight, it would have been a monster payday. But obviously family means more to him than money in everything he does.

Look at all the tears in the end. He was crying a lot. I mean, really, that was a lot of emotion, a lot of sorrow. And I just went up to him and said, ‘I love you and cry, go ahead, let it all out.’ He deserved it. He bottled that up, man. He bottled that up. That was all bottled up inside, and it drove him to what he did. It was like he said, coach, my toe is broken but my mind is not. And that just goes to explain how powerful the mind is and how powerful his mind was. And I always knew that as long as this man had the faith in himself, in his family, in his religion, that he could never be broken. I knew that from 2012.

Will The Eagle return?

“Unless he changes his mind, I personally, I don’t see the reason why, said Mendez. He’s never been somebody that’s said something and not meant it. To me, I would have to say that that part is done. I mean, sure, anything is possible. But as much as the fans, and even myself as a coach, I would love to have him back, but no, I think he’s done. … You’re not going to get me to try and convince him otherwise. If anything, I’ll say, ‘hey, you said you’re retired, stay retired.’ My feeling on it personally is, the longer you stay away from the sport, let’s say one, two years go by, I think it’s a mistake to come back at that point and juncture, because you’re going to be behind the times. Everybody keeps evolving all the time. The fighters get better, the techniques get better, the coaching gets better, and I think he’ll be behind. So, I don’t think it’s a wise idea.

Further, the coach discussed the camp, which was snakebit.

We had the worst luck ever for this camp, said Mendez. It was incredible how bad it was. But at the end of the day, every camp has problems, and we had our share in this one. But he was ready mentally to go and physically to go. Not a hundred percent physically, but he was ready and as ready as you can be, I guess, when you think about the whole thing.

When he first got here, I believe on September 11th, he had the mumps. It took him out of two weeks of training. And he got the mumps, I guess, the day before his father’s event in Russia. So, he came here with the mumps and he tried training a couple of days really light. But then he got so sick he had to be hospitalized. So, he was in the hospital for three days. He comes out, and I’m really s****ing, man. I’m going, oh man, we’re fighting such a great warrior like Justin and we’re already starting off on a bad foot … this really sucks. So, he starts training really light one week. And then the second week we had to get some sparring in, because without sparring you don’t know where you’re at. So, we have one sparring session. He looked okay. Not how I wanted him to look, but he looked okay. And the second sparring session he was looking great, and all of a sudden midway in the second round, boom, he stops. I go, what the heck happened? Broke his freakin’ toe. And I’m like, oh, great, broken toe. Now we have to wait more time for him to heal before we can start training again. So that really jacked everything up.”

Khabib posted an X-ray of his broken toe from Oct. 7, two weeks before he would compete at #UFC254

(via @TeamKhabib) pic.twitter.com/k3FAPeHRVz

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 27, 2020

But at the end of the day, we all have things that happen in camp, this was just one of our worst for him. And the one thing he said like six days out before the event, he said, ‘Coach, my toe may be broken, but my mind is not.’ And we worked on stuff like that forever from his father. To me, when he said that, we knew that we’re winning this fight no matter what. And in all honesty, these last sparring sessions, he looked fantastic. The last sparring session he had, he sparred with his cousin Usman, who is a phenom. He looked so incredible, I said, ‘Oh, we’re good, we’re good.’ If things didn’t go my way, you wouldn’t hear me talking about this, because then we’re crying sour grapes, and I didn’t want to do that. But due to the fact that he did win, I’m just stating out the facts. It was the worst camp for us in regards to injuries and stuff.

With an early exit from the sport, Nurmagomedov’s legacy is a matter of intense speculation.

Pound for pound he’s the best lightweight on the planet. In regards to the greatest, I mean, I’m biased. So, obviously, I say yes. But that’s for the fans to decide, said the coach. I definitely think he’s in the top three, if not number one, not number two, not number three. I mean, the fact of the matter is, dominance, performance, longevity compared to some of the other ones like an Anderson, like a GSP, like a Jon Jones, they might have more of a longevity as far as title defenses and title fights. But I don’t think there’s ever been a more dominant fighter in the history of the sport. I really don’t. Show me all the video. If you think I’m wrong, show me. Show me who has been more dominant, and I really can’t recall anybody that’s been more dominant. Then everybody knows who the clear-cut winner is. I’ve never seen it. So, for that reason, I would say so.

I can definitely one hundred percent undoubtedly, not being biased on this one, he is the greatest lightweight of all time. The greatest pound-for-pound, I might be biased there, but I’ll say yes.

And lastly, with the champ gone, what’s next for the lightweight division?

I think hands down it has to be Dustin, said Mendez. If anybody fights for the title, if it doesn’t include Dustin, I think it’s a tragedy, I think it’s a shame, and I believe he deserves it more than anybody.

“Conor was dominant in his last performance, regardless what weight it was. Conor is still a top guy. And anybody that’s in the top five, as long as it involves Dustin, in my opinion it’s a world title to me. In my eyes it’s legit. So, Dustin fighting anybody in the top five is a legit title. 

“A hundred percent Dustin. He’s proven that he’s number one, and he’s proven whoever he fights should fight for the title, in my opinion. I think Dustin is, in my eyes, he’s the lone guy.