It's been 14 years since the fighter most consider to be one of the greatest of all time made his UFC debut.

And by matter of coincidence, on the same card, the UFC's now long-running lead play-by-play voice made his live event debut with the promotion.

On Jan. 20, 2012, the UFC set up shop at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., for the second time in promotion history. UFC on FX 1 was the promotion's second show under a broadcast deal with FOX that started one event earlier at UFC 142 in Brazil.

The event itself was fairly formulaic. In the main event, Jim Miller submitted Melvin Guillard. Josh Neer submitted Duane Ludwig in the co-feature.

But among a lot of also-rans and mostly forgettable names on the prelims, there was one who stood out: Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The future UFC lightweight champion and arguably the proverbial GOAT at 155 pounds, Nurmagomedov submitted Kamal Shalorus in the third round with a rear-naked choke. Amazingly, it was not only Nurmagomedov's UFC debut – but fight week in Nashville was his first time in the United States.

Nine fights after that debut, and a little more than six years later, Nurmagomedov won the vacant lightweight title against Al Iaquinta – who remains the only fighter to go 25 minutes with the ex-champ, who retired in 2020 at 29-0 after only four title fights.

Check out highlights from Nurmagomedov's win over Shalorus above, called by Anik in their shared UFC debut.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Today in MMA history: Khabib, Anik debut at UFC Nashville in 2012