Khabib Nurmagomedov has used Julianna Peña’s UFC 269 upset over Amanda Nunes to help explain why his Eagle FC promotion will not yet add female fighters.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Eagle FC promotion has been making big waves since the Dagestan native took over the helm last year. In addition to landing a deal with UFC Fight Pass, the promotion will now venture beyond Russia and into the United States, and it has also added a 165lb weight class, which has been long requested by many fighters, including Nate Diaz and new Eagle FC signee Kevin Lee.
One change that will not be made anytime soon is the addition of any women’s divisions. When asked about the prospect of women joining Eagle FC, Khabib used Julianna Peña’s victory over Amanda Nunes as an example of why WMMA is not quite caught up to the male competition level (h/t Sportskeeda).
“I am like, we can watch what Julianna Peña did with Amanda Nunes [at UFC 269 last weekend]. But Julianna Peña, she is not like the greatest or something like that. She just beat Amanda Nunes like [on the day]. We can watch not many good [female] fighters all around the world. There are only like five or six of them. And we will wait and see [if we can do anything about it],” said Khabib.
Khabib did leave the door open to adding women to the Eagle FC roster in the future, so his reasoning does not appear to be tied to any cultural beliefs based on the above remarks. Khabib’s frankness in answering this question should not come as much of a surprise to anyone who remembers his ring-girl remarks from earlier this year that caused quite the stir.
One of the people who took issue with Khabib saying ring girls are “useless” is UFC women’s flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko. And if Shevchenko was not a fan of those comments, it’s safe to say she won’t be digging these remarks from Khabib all too much, either. And the same can almost assuredly be said for the new UFC women’s bantamweight champion, Julianna Peña.
You can view Khabib’s comments for yourself in the video below.
What are your thoughts on Khabib’s comments on the state WMMA?
