#4 vs. Michael Johnson, UFC 205 – 11/12/16

After the fight with Dos Anjos, it seemed like a title shot was almost certain to be in the future for Nurmagomedov. But due largely to a plethora of injuries, the Dagestani was unable to fight in 2015, meaning other contenders leapfrogged him. By the time he returned and beat down Darrell Horcher – a late replacement for Tony Ferguson – in April 2016, Dos Anjos was about to lose the title to Eddie Alvarez.
Nurmagomedov apparently signed a bout agreement to face Alvarez for the title at UFC 205, but instead, the promotion decided to grant the shot to Featherweight champion Conor McGregor in somewhat of a controversial move. Khabib stayed on the card, though, and fought Michael Johnson instead. Johnson was coming off the biggest win of his career over Dustin Poirier and seemed confident prior to the fight. It turned out that his confidence was misplaced.
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‘The Menace’ actually had some success early on, as Khabib appeared somewhat rusty on the feet and allowed Johnson to tag him with quick, sharp punches on numerous occasions early in the first round. But once Khabib got Johnson to the ground – on his first takedown attempt, too – the fight turned into yet another beating. Johnson simply couldn’t get up from underneath the Dagestani and took a horrendous amount of punches and elbows as Khabib passed his guard like a knife going through butter.
The second round proved to be even worse for Johnson, as he didn’t even get any punches off before being taken down and beaten up. By the third round, Khabib was so confident he began to yell at Dana White between hitting Johnson, demanding a title shot. When he slapped on a kimura and forced Johnson to submit, it felt like a kind of mercy.
Demolishing a highly ranked contender in this kind of fashion sent a simple message to the rest of the division – not only was Nurmagomedov back and healthy, but he was also on a mission to get the title around his waist.