Khabib Nurmagomedov might have retied from fighting, but his time in the UFC is far rom over.Fans were left bemused and amused on Saturday night as the legend live-streamed the night’s main bout between Kevin Holland and Derek Bunson to thousands of non-paying fans on social mediaKhabib, who recently retired from UFC with a perfect, 29-0-0 record, attended last night’s Fight Night in Las Vegas.The Russian was in the front row, seated next to UFC boss Dana White for the evening to watch Max Griffin, Montserrat Ruiz and Adrian Yanez all win on the night before the main event.Late into a night of joshing between the pair who could be seen laughing and chatting for most of the evening, Nurmagomedov took out his phone and started streaming the title fight on Instagram.At one point in the evening, around 30,700 fans had tuned in to watch the Holland-Bunson fight for free on Khabib’s Instagram account.UFC is notoriously difficult to watch for free online and most events, including last night’s, are PPV (pay-per-view).In addition ,UFC chief Dana White, who Nurmagomedov was sat next to whilst streaming the fight, takes great pride in how few illegal streams there are for UFC and how tough a stance UFC takes towards illegal streaming.Dana White was even recently quoted before Conor McGregor’s bout with Dustin Poirier in January as saying he was looking forward to streamers’ ‘crying and begging’.

For Nurmagomedov then, a UFC legend, to blatantly flaunt White’s hardline attitude towards streaming whilst sitting shoulder to shoulder with him, makes for entertaining reading. 

Fans understandably loved what was going on and many took to Twitter to express their enjoyment of the events unfolding.

As a result of its exclusivity, brought about in part by PPV, fighting is a sport that has particular allure for illegal streamers.

As a result, Dana White has taken an extremely hardline approach to streaming and believes he has thus managed to beat the online pirates.

Speaking to The Mac Life Earlier this year, White said: "We've been one of the leagues that has been so proactive on piracy,"

"I love how cool and tough these guys act on social media because - let me tell you what, we've caught a lot of people. Let me tell you what they do: They cry. They cry, and they beg not to be prosecuted and all this other stuff.

"We just overcame a huge hurdle in the piracy world, and we're going to catch some of these guys in 2021, and I look forward to the crying and the begging. We'll see how tough they are when they get caught."

White certainly wouldn’t have expected a serious culprit to be Nurmagomedov seated just next to him, though.

Perhaps Khabib won’t face some of the same punishments White has in store for other UFC illegal streamers on the internet.