Soon after he entered the UFC Zabit Magomedsharipov was considered, by many, to be a future title contender in the featherweight division. However, the Dagestani has not featured in the Octagon since November 2019, for a myriad of issues, and now it seems he may be done with MMA for good.
According to Sportskeeda Magomedsharipov has revealed that he is embarking on a career in medicine. In a post on Instagram he wrote, “the medical world of Makhachkala will soon have a new name.” The caption was featured alongside a picture of Magomedsharipov sat at a laptop inside a Doctors of the World office.
Doctors of the World is a humanitarian organization that provides medical care to vulnerable people across the world. The organization focuses on armed conflicts, harm reduction, maternal and child health and migrant populations.
Magomedsharipov’s post comes after Ariel Helwani discussed the 31-year-old’s possible disillusionment with his MMA career on a recent episode of The MMA Hour.
“From what I was told, he had almost like this moral religious dilemma that he was dealing with,” reported Helwani. “He’s very religious and I think he reached a point where he just didn’t wanna do it anymore. Now, his brother fights and he corners his brother, which I think is very interesting, but obviously everyone is different.”
After racking up an impressive record with the ACB promotion Magomedsharipov joined the UFC in 2017. He earned a Performance of the Night bonus in his debut fight after submitting Mike Santiago in the second round.
He earned another POTN bonus in his next fight, a third round submission win over Sheymon Moraes. He followed that up with a Fight of the Night unanimous decision win over Kyle Bochniak.
Shockingly, he only got a regular win bonus for his next performance — an improbable Suloev stretch submission win over Brandon Davis. After that he beat Jeremy Stephens by unanimous decision.
His last fight was a Fight of the Night earning unanimous decision win over Calvin Kattar. That fight headlined UFC Moscow on November 9, 2019.
Since then Magomedsharipov has been sidelined with injuries and illnesses. Magomedsharipov has also been public about his lack of enthusiasm for the fight game over this time-span.
In January Magomedsharipov’s manager claimed he was back in training and was expected to return to competition.
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