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.”