The 5 best UFC fighters from Europe

#4 Khabib Nurmagomedov

Khabib Nurmagomedov has the talent to become a UFC champion in the future

At 24-0 with wins over legit fighters like Michael Johnson, Rafael Dos Anjos and Gleison Tibau, you’d think Khabib Nurmagomedov would make it higher in a list like this.

The Dagestani grappling sensation certainly has the ability to do so, but he’s been massively held back by his own issues – a mixture of weight issues, various injuries, and the fact that he won’t fight during the Festival of Ramadan has restricted him to just eight UFC appearances in the last five years.

If he could’ve fought more frequently, then who knows – he could already have been holding a UFC title.

Nurmagomedov debuted in the UFC in January 2012 with a win over Kamal Shalorus, and he’s been perfect ever since. A wrecking ball of a fighter, Khabib prefers to wrestle his opponents to the ground and beat the hell out of them when they’re down.

Thus far, nobody has really been able to stop his takedown – he hit 21 of them on Abel Trujillo, for instance, and Trujillo isn’t a bad wrestler! – and he’s shown both solid skills standing and in terms of submissions too, as his kimura last November on Michael Johnson showed.

The word now is that Nurmagomedov is fit and healthy, and he’s signed to fight Edson Barboza at UFC 219 later this month.

Beat the Brazilian and he should find himself in line for a title shot again, as he did before withdrawing due to weight cutting issues this past March. If he can continue to dominate his opponents as he has done thus far in his career, he could well end up being recognised as the best European fighter in UFC history. At 29 years old, he’s certainly still got time on his side, too.