Itâs been seven years since Zabit Magomedsharipov last competed inside the UFC Octagon.
Way back in November 2019, âZabeastâ picked up a unanimous decision victory over fellow top contender Calvin Kattar, pushing him into the Top Five and significantly closer to a title shot. Unfortunately, Magomedsharipov would never make it into the cage again. Initially, his return was delayed by Yair Rodriguezâs injuries, and at one point âPanteraâ was briefly cut from the promotion for turning down the matchup.
Afterward, Magomedsharipov dealt with some health issues that kept him on the sidelines. By 2021, Magomedsharipov was booted from his No. 3 spot in the Featherweight rankings due to inactivity, and he announced his retirement a year later.
Fortunately, the high-flying Featherweight has remained active as a coach and recently returned to the competitive grappling scene. Speaking with his new grappling promotion Absolute Championship of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Magomedsharipov explained how Rodriguez repeatedly pulling out of fights and UFC failing to uphold its promises led to his retirement.
âThere were a lot of reasons, so many reasons,â Magomedsharipov said of his retirement. â[The UFC] just couldnât make the [Yair] fight happen. [I] wanted to fight, but like three or four times, theyâd postpone fights and we couldnât make a deal. But all these times I was making weight, going through camps, flying out to America. By the time you get there, youâve already been through so much, weight cut, training camp and everything.
âThen you arrive and two or three weeks before the fight, they tell you, âThatâs it, heâs injuredâ and postpone again. Iâd go back home again, and start getting ready all over again. Imagine that about five times. I got tired of it. How much can you take?
âWe had some agreements with them: if he pulls out of the fight a third time, theyâd automatically give me the title fight ⌠and the third time he found excuses. He came up with a lot of reasons. Then they started offering me somebody else, first [Chan Sung Jung] then some other guy, but at that time, it was just me and Rodriguez. The two of us were contenders, and they just didnât want to make me a champion.â
He concluded, âI know why too. At that time, we already had a lot of champions from Russia. Khabib was the champion then and Yan. Because of that, it wasnât beneficial for them that a third champion was from Russia.â
Could Magomedsharipov have been champion? At the time of his peak, the top dogs of the Featherweight class were Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway, who certainly would have tested his five-round mettle. That said, Magomedsharipovâs combination of fluid and flashy kickboxing with elite wrestling has yet to be matched all these years later, so it would have been interesting to see him try.
Itâs a shame âZabeastâ never got his title eliminator fight at a minimum. Yair Rodriguez, meanwhile, is still camped out at the No. 5 spot in the Featherweight rankings. He hasnât fought in 13 months, remains unbooked, and doesnât want to face divisional rival Diego Lopes.
That dude was so fun to watch. Such a shame he retired when he did. Good luck to him.
So many prospects & fighters robbed of fame & possible destinies.
Well, hardcores know. He was a helluva fighter.
its been 7 years?
feels like 2
I looked forward to his fights and would have loved to have seen where his ceiling was
I think we all felt the same, he couldâve gone down as one of the goats imo.
Of course it sucks he had to take that route and heâs definitely curvy the ufc prob didnât want another Russian as a champ.
But, I think he only fight like maybe 5 times for the ufc and if he was already going through the camps and confident why not just take the fights offered when it was clear Yair didnât want to fight him. He could have banked another win or 2 over lesser opponents and got his title shot.
Sounds like a combo of UFC pulling their usual shit and a guy not fully committed to fighting. Shit, heâs probably making more now doing whatever coaching he is than he was making for his fights at the time anyway.
Edit - just looked it up. He had 6 fights with UFC and seemed to stay relatively active fighting about 2x a year.
Classical UFC
Waiting for Rogan or Dana to tell the actual story
An exclusive interview with Zabit Magomedsharipov for ACBJJ. Honest conversation about a journey that has long remained behind the scenes. Breaking his silence for the first time, Zabit opens up about the real reasons behind his retirement from MMA: health struggles, burnout, the weight of elite competition, and his search for balance between career and personal life.
