Khabib Nurmagomedov’s career is usually remembered as one long undefeated storm.

29 wins.
0 losses.
UFC lightweight champion.
One of the most dominant fighters in MMA history.

But inside that perfect record, there is a tiny crack that makes the story even more interesting.

Khabib did not lose many rounds.

In fact, across his UFC career, only two rounds are commonly remembered as rounds he lost on the judges’ scorecards:

• Round 3 against Conor McGregor at UFC 229
• Round 1 against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254

Khabib still finished both fights. He submitted McGregor in Round 4 at UFC 229 and submitted Gaethje in Round 2 at UFC 254. But those two rounds matter because they show what actually worked, even briefly, against one of the most suffocating fighters the sport has ever seen. UFC Stats lists Khabib’s UFC 229 win over McGregor by submission in Round 4, and UFC’s official UFC 254 scorecard shows two judges gave Gaethje Round 1 against Khabib.

And the funny part?

Neither Conor nor Gaethje “solved” Khabib.

They only delayed the system.

That is the real story.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje – Round 1 🥊

Distance Management and Calf Kicks

Justin Gaethje entered the Khabib fight with one clear mission:

Do not let Khabib enter wrestling range for free.

That sounds just that simple.
It is not.

Against Khabib, distance is not just distance. It is survival. Once he gets close, especially near the fence, the fight stops being normal MMA and turns into a very stressful unpaid internship in Dagestani wall wrestling.

Gaethje understood that.

So in Round 1, he built his defense around movement, kicking range, and fast exits.

Gaethje’s Three Layers of Distance Defense

Gaethje worked with three main layers:

1. Kicking range
2. Boxing range
3. Clinch range

Each layer had a different job.

At kicking range, Gaethje used calf kicks to attack Khabib’s movement. This was his most active range. The goal was simple: damage the legs, interrupt forward pressure, and make takedown entries harder.

At boxing range, Gaethje became more defensive and explosive. Whenever Khabib stepped closer, Gaethje answered with heavy punches, especially big hooks and overhands designed to make Khabib hesitate.

At clinch range, Gaethje wanted no part of long exchanges. If Khabib reached him, Gaethje tried to push, separate, and run back to space as quickly as possible.

This was not a bad plan.

Actually, it worked pretty well for most of the round.

Gaethje kept the fight moving. He circled around the cage. He attacked Khabib’s legs. He avoided extended clinches. He made Khabib work just to touch him.

But there was a catch.

And Khabib is very good at this.

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Khabib’s Pressure Was Still Working Even When He Was Not Landing Clean

This is the interesting part of the round.

Khabib struggled to get clean grappling entries for most of Round 1. He could not consistently enter his favorite wrestling range. He also did not land the cleaner striking work compared to Gaethje.

But his pressure was still doing something important.

He kept forcing Gaethje to move.

Gaethje was not just calmly circling. He was constantly sprinting around danger. Every time Khabib stepped forward, Gaethje had to reset, kick, swing, escape, or defend the fence. A lot of works in just under a minute.

That is exhausting.

So even though Gaethje was winning the round, he was spending a lot of energy to do it.

This is one of the strange things about fighting Khabib:

You can win the minute and still lose the long-term energy battle.

Gaethje won many of the striking moments, but Khabib kept pushing the pace forward. That pressure slowly started bending the round toward the kind of fight Khabib wanted.

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The Kicking Battle

Gaethje’s main weapon was the calf kick.

He attacked Khabib’s lead leg repeatedly, trying to damage the base and slow the pressure. That made sense because Khabib’s wrestling depends heavily on forward movement, level changes, and closing distance.

If the legs stop moving well, the takedown entries become harder.

On the other side, Khabib tried to build his way forward with simple boxing combinations. His most common entry look was the basic 1-2, sometimes mixed with knees or kicks.

But Khabib was not trying to become a better kickboxer than Gaethje.

He was using strikes to test reactions, cover distance, and hide wrestling entries.

Gaethje reacted aggressively whenever Khabib entered. He threw heavy counters to punish Khabib for stepping in and to keep him outside grappling range.

This is why Gaethje won the round on two judges’ cards.

Khabib’s pressure was real, but Gaethje’s striking was cleaner and more effective for most of the five minutes. UFC Stats lists Gaethje outlanding Khabib in total significant strikes for the fight, with Gaethje landing 29 of 45 significant strikes compared to Khabib’s 26 of 80, which fits the visual story of Gaethje being sharper in the early striking exchanges.

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The Grappling Battle: Khabib Needed Only One Real Entry

For most of the round, Gaethje defended well.

At around 3:03, Khabib shot on a single leg, but Gaethje escaped quickly.

Seconds later, around 2:59, Khabib followed with another entry and tried to build from the underhook, but Gaethje pushed him away and escaped again.

Those moments mattered.

Gaethje was not just defending takedowns. He was refusing to stay connected. Against Khabib, that is the difference between surviving and entering the haunted house.

But then came the final minute.

At around 0:42, Khabib finally caught Gaethje’s exposure and entered on a double leg. This time, Gaethje could not escape. Khabib dragged him down, locked the legs, trapped the arm, passed into mount, and quickly attacked the armbar before the bell rang.

That final sequence was pure Khabib.

The problem for Khabib was timing.

It happened too late in the round.

He dominated the final 40 seconds, but Gaethje had already banked most of the round with movement, calf kicks, and cleaner striking. MMAFighting reported that judges Sal D’Amato and Ben Cartlidge scored Round 1 for Gaethje 10-9, while Derek Cleary scored it for Khabib. A split decision.

So yes, when Khabib finally got the fight to the ground, he looked dominant.

But one dominant sequence near the end was not enough to erase the rest of the round.

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Why Gaethje Won the Round

Gaethje won Round 1 because he did three things well:

• He stayed outside Khabib’s best grappling range.
• He used calf kicks and counters to interrupt entries.
• He escaped clinch connections before they became control positions.

That was the good part.

The bad part?

The plan was expensive on cardio.

Gaethje had to move constantly, throw hard, react fast, and escape every time Khabib stepped into range. That kind of game plan works, but it burns fuel like a sports car with a hole in the tank.

And once Khabib adjusted, the round ended with Gaethje in the exact place he spent five minutes trying to avoid:

Under Khabib.

Round 1 showed that Gaethje could win minutes against Khabib.
Round 2 showed that winning minutes is not the same as surviving the system.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Conor McGregor – Round 3 🥊

The Round Khabib Chose to Box

If Gaethje’s round was about distance and calf kicks, Conor McGregor’s round was about something different:

Pride.

Round 3 with Conor McGregor at UFC 229 is one of the strangest rounds of Khabib’s career because he clearly had moments where he could push harder into wrestling.

Instead, he spent long stretches striking with Conor.

That is never the safest business decision.

Even tired Conor McGregor is still Conor McGregor. His timing, lead hand, distance management, and counter-punching remain dangerous even when his gas tank is screaming in Irish.

By Round 3, Conor had already spent two brutal rounds defending Khabib’s wrestling. His speed was slower. His output was less explosive. His body language was not fresh.

But technically, he was still the better boxer.

And in Round 3, that mattered.

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Movement and Position: Conor Took the Center Early

Conor started Round 3 with more confidence.

He moved forward, tried to cut Khabib off, and looked to bring the fight into striking exchanges. Khabib’s grappling threat still forced Conor to respect distance, but Conor had more success controlling the early movement than in the previous rounds.

Then Khabib attempted to wrestle.

At around 3:28, Khabib shot a double leg near the cage. But this time, the position was not ideal. Khabib was closer to the cage corner himself, and Conor had enough space to sprawl and defend.

By around 3:18, Conor escaped and reset.

That was important.

Khabib’s usual wrestling machine depends heavily on forcing opponents into positions where their movement options shrink. When the opponent has space to sprawl, turn, and reset, the takedown becomes much harder.

After that, Khabib started pressuring forward again.

At around 3:06, he closed distance and shot another double leg. He won some hand-fighting moments, but he could not fully close the space or secure control. Conor escaped again around 2:41.

Then near 1:27, Khabib entered another takedown attempt. He got to the clinch, attacked with an outside trip, but could not fully control Conor on the knee. Conor stood up, and the round remained stuck in clinch exchanges until the bell.

That was the main reason Khabib could not steal the round.

He had grappling moments.

But he did not convert them into clean takedown control.

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The Striking Battle: Conor’s Boxing Was Still Cleaner

Conor’s biggest advantage has always been his striking.

In Round 3, he finally had enough space to show it.

His lead hand stayed active. He used it to measure distance, feint, frame, and set up his left hand. He attacked both head and body, mostly through straight punching patterns and feint-to-cross looks.

Not everything landed clean.

Khabib was not defenseless. He blocked, moved, and reacted hard whenever Conor threw.

But the technical difference was obvious.

Conor’s boxing mechanics were sharper. His distance control was better. His punches came with more natural timing.

Khabib, on the other hand, tried to box with Conor using mostly basic 1-2 combinations. He was brave, but technically outmatched in that range.

This is the one round where Khabib’s pride seemed to enter the cage wearing its own little papakha.

He wanted to stand with Conor.

Maybe to prove a point.
Maybe to punish him mentally.
Maybe because he had already drained Conor enough to feel safe.

Whatever the reason, it gave Conor the kind of round he needed.

UFC Stats records McGregor landing 34 of 52 total strikes in Round 3 compared to Khabib’s 15 of 37, which supports why the round was scored for Conor’s effective strikes despite Khabib’s clinch attempts.

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The Slap Exchange: Personal Business With Gloves

There were also two moments that felt more personal than tactical.

At around 2:05, Khabib opened his lead hand and slapped Conor.

That was not just a strike.

That was a message.

Then around 1:37, Conor slapped him back.

The two were even.

This was not the most technical part of the round, but it showed the emotional layer of the fight. Khabib vs Conor was never just about winning exchanges.

It was about humiliation, pride, pressure, revenge, and two men trying to make the other one feel small inside a cage watched by the entire planet.

Round 3 carried that energy.

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Why Conor Won the Round

Conor won Round 3 because he did enough in the areas where Khabib failed to establish dominance.

He had:

• cleaner boxing
• better distance management
• more effective striking volume
• successful takedown defense
• no long period of bottom control

Khabib attempted to wrestle, but attempts are not the same as control.

He pushed Conor to the fence, entered clinches, and worked for takedowns, but he could not secure the type of dominant control that usually flips rounds in his favor.

Only cage clinch pressure was not enough.

So Conor took the round.

But again, just like Gaethje, winning the round did not mean solving Khabib.

Because Khabib finished him in the very next round.

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What These Two Rounds Teach Us About Beating Khabib 📝

The two lost rounds show two different ways opponents briefly found success.

Gaethje’s Success

Gaethje won with:

• movement
• calf kicks
• explosive counters
• fast clinch exits
• refusing long body connections

His plan worked because he delayed Khabib’s grappling entries and made the early minutes a striking battle.

But it cost too much energy.

Conor’s Success

Conor won with:

• cleaner boxing
• distance management
• takedown defense
• successful resets
• Khabib choosing to strike longer than usual

His plan worked because Khabib did not convert his wrestling attempts into meaningful top control.

But Conor was already drained from the first two rounds.

So the round was more like a brief comeback than a full momentum shift.

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The Common Pattern: They Won the Round, Not the Fight 🧩

This is the key point.

Both Gaethje and Conor won rounds by keeping Khabib away from his best phase of fighting for long enough.

But neither man escaped the bigger pattern.

Against Khabib, the fight was never only about one round.

It was about accumulation:

• Pressure accumulates.
• Takedown threats accumulate.
• Defensive movement accumulates.
• Fear of the fence accumulates.
• Energy debt accumulates.

Gaethje spent Round 1 moving, kicking, and escaping.

Conor spent the first two rounds defending wrestling before having his best striking round.

Both had moments. But neither escaped the system.

That is what made Khabib special.

He did not need to win every second.

He only needed to keep pushing the fight toward the place where his advantage became unavoidable.

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Final Thoughts 💭

The only two rounds Khabib Nurmagomedov lost in his UFC career are fascinating because they do not damage his legacy.

They explain it.

Justin Gaethje showed that movement, calf kicks, and fast exits could delay Khabib’s grappling pressure.

Conor McGregor showed that clean boxing and takedown defense could win a round if Khabib failed to secure control.

But both examples came with the same warning label:

You can win moments against Khabib.
Surviving the whole system is something else.

Gaethje won Round 1, then got submitted in Round 2.
Conor won Round 3, then got submitted in Round 4.

That is the brutal beauty of Khabib’s career.

Even his rare lost rounds feel less like weakness and more like temporary resistance before the machine finished loading.