LAS VEGAS – Khabib Nurmagomedov is too young to say he’ll never reach the heights that his enormous talents suggest he’s capable of, but the evidence is growing.

Nurmagomedov was taken to Sunrise Hospital late Thursday after falling ill during his weight cut for his interim lightweight title bout against Tony Ferguson in the co-main event of UFC 209 at T-Mobile Arena.

On Friday, as the clock hit the Nevada Athletic Commission’s 11 a.m. PT deadline to weigh-in for the event, the UFC issued a news release announcing the bout’s cancellation because Nurmagomedov couldn’t get medically cleared.

It is the second time in five years in the UFC he’s failed to make weight. He weighed in at 158.5 at UFC 160 for a bout against Abel Trujillo. He declined to try to lose the additional 2.5 pounds then that he would have needed to drop to reach the 156-pound limit, and surrendered 20 percent of his purse to Trujillo.

Nurmagomedov has been plagued by injuries throughout his career and once went 727 days between bouts because of various injuries.

Healthy, Nurmagomedov is a marvel, capable of feats in the Octagon that seem like something from a superhero graphic novel.

One has to wonder whether he’ll ever be able to have that long, sustained run where he can compete fully healthy – or at least as healthy as MMA fighters can be, given that few of them ever go into a bout 100 percent healthy – or if his body will betray him.

His extraordinary record (24-0 overall, 8-0 in UFC) was just the appetizer for what was to come. Imagine, for a second, had he been able to beat Ferguson on Saturday and then fought Conor McGregor for the lightweight belt in his next bout.

Had he subsequently defeated McGregor, he would have been one of the three biggest stars in the sport at that point, with nothing but big fights ahead of him. The UFC’s record winning streak is 16, set by ex-middleweight champion Anderson Silva over a seven-year period from 2006-13.

If Nurmagomedov could have gotten past Ferguson and McGregor – no guarantee in either, obviously – that would have given him 10 wins in a row in the Octagon. It would have been easy to see him adding seven more to that list.

Weight issues are entirely separate from physical injuries like torn knees and broken bones, but the sad thing is that Nurmagomedov has suffered from both.

In that sense, he’s a combination of John Lineker (missed weight three times) and Dominick Cruz (injuries kept him out nearly three full years, and limited him to one fight in more than four years).

Nurmagomedov could move up to 170 pounds, which theoretically should solve his weigh-cut issues, but that would put him at a disadvantage in that he’d be competing against significantly larger opponents.

The best weight is always the one a fighter can make the most easily. When he or she struggles to make weight and gets badly dehydrated, it makes them more susceptible to brain injuries.

Nurmagomedov isn’t a physically imposing specimen, and one of the things that makes him special is how dominant he has been in a sport where many of the fighters have physiques like they’re interested in a body-building career.

He doesn’t have the large pectorals, the huge biceps or washboard abs many of his peers do, and it increases his appeal when many see what they consider to be an average-looking guy dominating these Adonises.

Hopefully, this is just a blip and he’s able to put all of this behind him, recover successfully and resume his career without the injuries or weight-cutting issues haunting him.

Everyone has a weakness, though, and perhaps Nurmagomedov is silently telling us that his is his body, which on Friday betrayed him at the wrong time.

Only time will tell, but a skeptic has to wonder if Nurmagomedov is ever going to be the champion he seems so capable of becoming.

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