When UFC Ring Girl Luciana Andrade clarified seemingly confused reaction to Khabib Nurmagomedov's interview

Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the most well-known figures in MMA. Despite retiring from the sport and no longer being an active athlete, he remains one of the most talked-about names across all combat sports. While this is largely due to the mystique of his unbeaten record, it is also partially due to his distinct views.

Not long ago, the former UFC lightweight kingpin spoke out against the presence of ring girls in MMA, even going as far as describing them as the most unnecessary people in the sport. Thus, when a video of an on-stage incident with a ring girl went viral, many wondered what had truly taken place.

At the UFC 242 ceremonial weigh-ins, which marked Khabib Nurmagomedov's penultimate appearance as a fighter, he gave a speech, in Russian. This seemed to draw a reaction from UFC ring girl Luciana Andrade. However, she quickly clarified, with an Instagram post on 6 September 2019, that she didn't even speak Russian, so understood nothing of what Nurmagomedov had said.

Check out the post below:

Andrade further punctuated her statement by clarifying that her reaction had nothing to do with Khabib Nurmagomedov's words, which she, again, did not understand. Given that Andrade has defended the ring girls in the past, many wondered if she was expressing disapproval of Nurmagomedov.

However, it is worth noting that Nurmagomedov's infamous anti-ring girl statement was made in 2021, two years after UFC 242. So while Andrade might have been privy to Nurmagomedov's general conservative beliefs, he had yet to say anything negative about ring girls, in particular.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov's rivalry with Tony Ferguson

There was a time when Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson seemed destined to fight. Unfortunately, despite peaking around the same time in the lightweight division, as well as Ferguson capturing interim gold to Nurmagomedov's undisputed title, the two never crossed swords.

The UFC tried to book the matchup five different times, with the reason for the fight never happening growing more absurd with each booking. It went from injuries and botched weight cuts to Ferguson tearing his knee out after tripping on a cable (due to his use of indoor sunglasses) and a global pandemic.

Eventually, Nurmagomedov retired from MMA, while Ferguson, 39, experienced a massive decline.