Khabib Nurmagomedov says the years widely considered his prime weren’t actually his best.

And that his grappling has kept improving since he walked away from the sport.

Speaking on the Smol Talk podcast with Fyodor Smolov, the undefeated former UFC lightweight champion, who retired in October 2020 at age thirty-two, said that he retired before ever truly peaking:

People think that 2018, 2019, and 2020 were my prime. But I never actually reached my prime…
That was quite early. I had barely begun. Perhaps that was only the start of my prime.

My grappling is much better now. In the summer of 2026, my grappling is better than it was in 2020.

As evidence, Khabib pointed to training partners who’ve rolled with him both in 2020 and now, saying they’ve noticed the difference firsthand.

He credits the improvement to consistency above all else – aside from a two-month layoff following elbow surgery, he says he’s rarely gone more than two weeks without live grappling.
In the week before the interview, he said he logged between 170 and 180 minutes of live rounds, and estimates he averages around 100 minutes of live grappling per week over a full year.

Asked whether any training partner can currently outwrestle him, Khabib’s answer suggested otherwise:

It’s difficult. They all complain about my weight now.

He was clear that the improvement isn’t just a shift in perspective:

I’ve physically improved my skills.
The way I take the back, move to mount, enter chokes, guillotines and triangles, defend submissions, and prevent escapes, all of that has improved physically.

It isn’t only that I’ve matured mentally and can now see mistakes.
My actual execution is better too.

Rewatching old footage has changed how he views those championship years:

When I rewatch my matches, I think: “How could I make that mistake?”

Viewers at the time watched from another angle and thought: “Wow, what a level.”
But in my opinion, it wasn’t such a high level.

As for whether he still craves competition, Khabib says he doesn’t need to look far:

Whenever I need competition, I go to the gym and find champions there.

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