Watch: Khabib Nurmagomedov and Cristiano Ronaldo’s epic face-off as UFC icon shares glimpses of his Old Trafford trip

Former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov pulled off his signature face-off, against Cristiano Ronaldo when he attended Manchester United’s Premier League clash against Everton last weekend. During his visit to iconic Old Trafford, he met and interacted with some of the current and former players of the club like Paul Pogba and Rio Ferdinand, etc. 

But the video of Nurmagomedov staring off against his close friend Ronaldo is unmissable! The clip was posted by Khabib on his official Instagram handle on Tuesday (October 5) along with other images of him and the Portuguese footballer together. “He is a best ever, keep doing your things Champ, you inspire millions of people around the World,” Khabib wrote for Ronaldo. 

In the video, MMA legend, who retired from the sport last year, can be seen squaring off against Ronaldo, just like the way he used to do in pre-fight UFC press conferences against his opponents. Besides the post with Ronaldo, Khabib shared images with Pogba and legendary United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. 

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Watch the video here: 

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Khabib shared an image with Man Utd’s iconic jersey, and captioned it as: “It’s a great honor to visit this legendary stadium, by invitation of the legendary football club @manchesterunited. 

“Thanks for warm welcome. I hope @cristiano and @davidbeckham wouldn’t mind that I got number 7,” he added. 

Here are other posts on Khabib’s Instagram:

Khabib told MUTV: “We talked a little bit about today’s match. They said they were going to be on the bench but in the second half they are going to come in.”

“Pogba (is) a world champion, Cristiano is a legend, how many times has he won the Champions League (again)? It was an honour to talk with them before the match. It was very interesting for me (to see) like how they are feeling and what energy they are doing before the match, the night before the match. Because I am an athlete too and I have this feeling and it was very interesting to see how football players are feeling, he added. 

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In a conversation with former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in the directors’ lounge at Old Trafford, United legend Ferguson was filmed saying “you should always start with your best players”.

In the video, posted on Nurmagomedov’s Instagram account on Sunday, Ferguson suggested Everton got a boost “when they saw Ronaldo wasn’t playing”. 

During the match, United were held at home by Everton on Saturday after Ronaldo was dropped to the subs bench. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ‘s decision to start Ronaldo on the bench will be questioned as the Red Devils have now won just two of their last six games in all competitions.

But the manager defended that call and his side’s start to the season as they moved level on points with Liverpool and one ahead of champions Manchester City before those two teams clash at Anfield on Sunday.

“You make decisions throughout the season, you’ve got to manage the players’ workload,” said Solskjaer. “The decision was, for me, the correct one today.”

(With inputs from agencies)