Khabib Nurmagomedov was recently spotted at one of the bigger regional MMA shows around the world, and the first man to put a blemish on Royce Gracie's MMA record was alongside him.
At UAE Warriors 64 earlier, the former UFC lightweight champion addressed the viewers, both live and viewing the broadcast, as he spoke on the microphone in the cage with the inimitable Kazushi Sakuraba next to him. Over a quarter century ago, Sakuraba defeated Gracie after a ninety minute clash that became immortalized in the sport's history as part of 2000 Pride Grand Prix with the bout taking place in May of that year.
Long time fans of the sport seemed to get a kick out of seeing the two UFC Hall of Famers in the cage with eachother with stalwart MMA die hard Caposa psoting an image of the two to his X account.
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Kazushi Sakuraba's UFC HOF induction stories
Khabib Nurmagomedov become part of the UFC Hall of Fame fold in 2022 as part of the modern wing. This induction also happened at the same time his AKA compatriot Daniel Cormier also found himself being brought into the same wing of the hall.
In a conversation with ESPN at that time, Khabib Nurmagomedov spoke about how different his life was just ten years before and spoke about how emotional it was for him to be having a moment like this without his father Abdulmanap still around.
For Kazushi Sakuraba, his inclusion into the UFC Hall of Fame came as part of the class of 2017. Other prominent individuals who were part of that HOF class included former WEC titleholder as well as multi-time UFC title challenger Urijah Faber, former UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, and former UFC heavyweight champion Maurice Smith. Sakuraba predominantly carved out the bulk of his legacy under the Pride FC banner but he did make quite a splash during his lone night fighting in the UFC's octagon.
At UFC Japan in 1997, Sakuraba would fight Marcus Silveira twice in the same night due to circumstances with tournament pull outs and the controversial nature of their first fight being stopped prematurely. The man who by today's standards would have likely been a welterweight submitted the hulking 'Conan' Silveira to not only earn his first official MMA win but Sakuraba also won the UFC's one night heavyweight tournament championship in the process.
![[EXCLUSIVE] 2022 UFC Hall of Fame induction | Behind the Scenes with Khabib Nurmagomedov](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.youtube.com%2Fvi%2FEvo3tVRU41Y%2Fhqdefault.jpg&w=1400&q=75)
