Boxing golden boy Oscar De La Hoya ruled the strip in the early 2000s before Floyd Mayweather took the Nevada braggadocio up a notch.
And the rise of MMA’s popularity in the desert state, where cash is king and excess is success, spawned a showman tailor-made for the internet age and interminable Vegas in Conor McGregor.
All three pretty boys have lived the high life in their own wild ways, Money Man now runs a local strip club while the Notorious is flogging his own brand of whiskey off the back of the UFC.
But if Nurmagomedov can defend his lightweight world title against the challenge of McGregor on October 6 at the T-Mobile Arena a much more solemn soul will sit atop of the pile.
Devout Muslim Nurmagomedov will never be found sharing a glass of Proper No. 12 with his Irish rival or stuffing dollar notes into the G-strings of Mayweather’s dancers.
The 30-year-old undefeated ace is teetotal and prefers the mosque, gym or family home to any gentleman’s club.
The Nurmagomedov family is from Dagestan, high up in the wild Caucasus mountains of Russia.
Father Abdulmanap turned the ground floor of their two-tier home into a gym that all the local kids could visit to learns ancient combat skills like sambo, judo, pankration, freestyle wrestling.
Soon the stocky middle sibling of the three-child family started training too and was mastering a list of disciplines and was testing them out, aged just nine… ON BEARS.
The Eagle has graduated from grappling grizzlies to building a 26-0 MMA record. Unlike southpaw McGregor, his success has not been down to a list of highlight reel knockouts.
Ten wins have gone the distance and eight have been won by submission. Khabib does now possess the extraordinarily long limbs McGregor has at his disposal, instead he grinds his opponents down to dust.
Across a long list of different promotional banners – from Tsumada Fighting, to Golden Fist and ProFC, Khabib has still never lost a single rounds on the judges’ scorecards.
In the UFC it has not all been plain sailing, though, the less-than-terrifying nickname of Tiramisu follows him around.
Before UFC 209 in 2017, a fight with Tony Ferguson was scheduled but the Russian was hospitalised when his weight cut went wrong.
When a photo of Team Khabib enjoying lunch during camp surfaced, with a table full of the coffee-desserts, he was ridiculed and has still failed to shake the moniker off, especially with Ferguson.
Unlike McGregor, Khabib’s private life is just that. There is little or no sign of his wife or children on his social media accounts while McGregor proudly flaunts the luxury his family is enjoying through his fight career.
The understated wrestler makes no mention of the money he is set to earn from potentially the biggest fight in MMA history or the belt he will defend.
He talks about humbling the two-weight icon. He talks about making him tired, hurting him, talking to him throughout the mauling and not letting him submit, as he has done in three previous bouts.
Winning in Las Vegas for Nurmagomedov seems to mean something different to everyone else who lands at the McCarran airport looking to fill their wallet with a lucky spin or shot.
If, as rumours suggest, McGregor’s new liquor brand is advertised on the canvas on Saturday, Khabib would have reason to feel aggrieved. But he could not care less, as long as the Irishman is down on the deck too, having his body broken.
Nurmagomedov said: “I don’t care about that, I cannot control it. They can put his face on the matt but the most important thing is just when the cage door closes and it is just us, that is what I am waiting for.
“On October 6 I am going to talk with him, I am going to explain everything to him in the cage.
“I am going to make him humble, I am going to teach him, sometimes slap him, make him tired. When he is tired he goes for a takedown because he wants to be choked out but it is going to be a long night.
“I am going to make him tired and maul him.”
There is one crucial part of Khabib’s arsenal missing that McGregor has in spades. His father Abdulmanap has once again been refused a visa to travel to America and watch his son and star pupil.
McGregor’s entire clan will be in tow and the hole in Khabib’s might be one of his few weaknesses.
He said: “I really want to fight in Russia because if I fight in Russian then my father can be in the corner with me, that is my big dream.
“He has been to the US embassy again and been refused, I do not understand why.”
Khabib is by no means short of support in place of his father. Just before leaving his American Kickboxing Academy in California his coaches opened the door to dozens over devoted fans.
In personalised t-shirts they swarmed their hero and sang, among other ditties, “Conor is a goner”.
The fan club sent their star off with a rousing show of support and he says he feeds off it. He said: “I feed off the energy, it gives me a big motivation.”
Conor came to the UFC with the support of the Irish and a quick wit sharp enough to open tin cans and lead him to his fortune. But he now faces his polar opposite.
A man for whom money and belts seem to matter very little and who wants to get in and out of Vegas ASAP as opposed to taking over the town like McGregor did.
Everyone heading to Nevada wants a Hangover story worthy of the film, a fluke on the roulette wheel or 15 minutes of fame.
Everyone apart from Khabib Nurmagomedov and that is what makes him so dangerous.
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