UFC: Khabib Nurmagomedov grants birthday wish for 66-year-old fan braving searing Las Vegas heat to get photo
- Dana White invites Nelly Gonzalez into headquarters and sets up meeting with former lightweight champ
- ‘I was blown away to see her outside in 105 degrees [Fahrenheit], all I could think was that’s incredible,’ says UFC president
Khabib Nurmagomedov granted a special birthday wish to a 66-year-old superfan who braved the searing Las Vegas summer heat to try to get a picture with her idol.
UFC president Dana White saw a video of Nelly Gonzalez standing in temperatures of 40.5 degrees Celsius holding a sign reading “khabib plz 4 photo” outside the promotion’s Apex headquarters, following a four-hour drive from Lancaster, California.
“I love him very much and that I just want to meet him in person,” Gonzalez – who has followed MMA since becoming a fan of the UFC in 1993 – said in the video.
Retired former UFC lightweight champ Nurmagomedov was inside the building, as he is in town to corner his American Kickboxing Academy teammate Islam Makhachev (19-1) against Thiago Moises (15-4) in Saturday night’s UFC Vegas 31 main event.
“I was blown away to see her outside in 105 degrees [Fahrenheit] heat,” White told UFC.com. “All I could think is that’s incredible and let’s get her in here as soon as possible.”
White posted a video to his Instagram story showing him greeting Gonzalez, who is originally from Bogota, Colombia, in the building lobby. “Nice to meet you,” he said. “You’re a big Khabib fan? I’m gonna get you to meet him, OK?”
The UFC chief then took down her phone number, saying he would check with Nurmagomedov about his schedule, and a photo posted to the UFC’s official Instagram story later showed Gonzalez with “The Eagle”.
The Dagestan native and his superfan also enjoyed a FaceTime call with White, who invited Gonzalez to watch this weekend’s fights.
“It meant the world to me to meet him,” Gonzalez said. “It is impossible to put into words how amazing it is to meet someone whom you are a great fan of for the way he conducts himself and inspires others. And I must thank Dana White and [Nurmagomedov’s manager] Ali Abdelaziz.”
