Issue 151
February 2017
Khabib Nurmagomedov is most experts’ tip as Conor McGregor’s biggest threat and though the unbeaten Dagestani has been denied a shot at UFC gold so far, he won’t for much longer.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is back in his homeland in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Away from the frenzy of promotional machinations, the unbeaten 28-year-old Sambo fighter turned mixed martial artist, ranked as the #1 contender in the UFC lightweight division, can reflect on life and a huge year ahead.
He makes for a unique and fascinating study. Little wonder fans are taken by the man with a perfect record made up of an exceptional eight KOs, eight submissions, and eight decision victories. And as a person, he’s as well-rounded as his record.
Warrior spirit
Nurmagomedov reveals he is planning a trip high up into the mountains with family, to a house they have built of stone and wood. They will cook and barbecue lamb and chicken in the open air, with rustic fires, and ‘The Eagle’, as he is known in warrior mode, will commune with nature, as stories are swapped around the campfire late into the night.
He understands the ancestral mores of the generations who have been involved in struggles that continue to this day. Real fighting.
But the one thing that occupies Khabib’s mind many times a day, which feeds his restless soul, is God. Nurmagomedov’s spiritual side is never far from his thoughts.
On the earthly, more physical side, another name flitters frequently through his mind: Conor McGregor. “I want to fight him,” he explains, in the aftermath of his last victory, number 24 of his career, against Michael Johnson on the night the UFC lit up Manhattan and brought a new electricity to Madison Square Garden. “I want a big fight. I cannot wait for a possible fight with McGregor.”
He concedes: “Maybe McGregor deserves a little break because he has fought a lot recently. But if you’re the champion you have to defend your belt all the time. This is not like when you’re the number three or number five-ranked challenger.
You’re champion. You have to fight the best guy every time. You cannot pick who you want to fight and when you want to fight them. You have to defend your belt every four or five months.”
As Nurmagomedov points out, McGregor has yet to defend a belt he has won, either in Cage Warriors or the UFC. Smartly, he – or maybe even his promoters – have kept him moving, kept the gravy train spewing green. There’s no getting away from it – McGregor is a money machine for the UFC at present and it’s not lost on the Dagestani fighting machine that the idea of a Russian holding the belt may not be promotionally appealing.
He knows it. He gets it. And it means he has to fight even harder to get that shot. His skillset, of course, from a sensational Sambo base, could create stylistic nightmares for the Irishman.
“At the moment, McGregor makes too many decisions. He has power. The UFC has to listen to him because they make money with him,” Khabib states.
“He deserves what he has earned but the fans want all the champions to fight their number one contenders. They want fights between the top guys.
"I don't think fans want to see him fight Nate Diaz one more time. He needs somebody new, at a new level, like me. I'm a little bit worried, but I think the UFC will make this fight."
Khabib's life in Dagestan is little known about, and he offered an intriguing insight.
"We have a tough life in Dagestan. In Dagestan for us, the number one thing is family. Family is everything. If you don't have a good relationship with your family you can’t feel like you are a real man.
“Nobody respects you if you don’t have a good relationship with your family. Family is everything. Brothers, friends, your parents, this is everything for us.”
Then the influences. “My father for more than 10 years coached combat sambo and is an MMA coach. My mother was working for us – looking after us, making the food, making sure we were OK.
"I would never feel good if my mother worked. I have a father, brothers, why would my mother work? She doesn’t need to work. She needs to take care of my home, kids, us.
“I have a big family. My brothers have a lot of brothers, I have a lot of cousins. Everybody is training. Everybody wants to fight like me in the UFC. They all have big dreams. I have only one brother and one sister, blood, but I have a lot of other cousins who are like brothers and sisters.”
Then his religion. “This means everything to me. If you don’t believe in God, you don’t have a good spirit. Everything that happens is because God wants it to happen. That’s why you have good spirit, good mental. That’s why I’m so strong mentally.”
What is clear, too, is that Khabib has immersed himself in the English language, knowing that expressing himself to fans on the UFC platform may end up being equally important if he is to project himself towards the biggest fights.
“It is very important,” he explains. “When you fight and you live in the USA, and fight in the UFC, this is very important because you have to give interviews in English. You have to promote yourself. When I started working with my brother and manager, they said you have to talk English all the time.
"If you want to promote yourself and be a great fighter, you have to talk English. You have to learn. I try to now always give interviews in English.”
California love
Living in California for 12 weeks at a time before fights has certainly helped. “When the UFC give me a fight, two or three months before, I (will) move to AKA. In Dagestan it’s hard training now because everybody knows me, a lot of people come to the gym, they take photos and I can’t focus.
"It’s why I moved to AKA and train there and live there. I have good relationships with the people there.
“But in Dagestan, we have the best wrestling school in the world with Olympic champions and when I’m there it’s wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. I then go to AKA and am more focused with my top control.
“AKA has become like my second family. I have a good relationship with a lot of guys there. Luke Rockhold, Josh (Thomson), Daniel Cormier, Jon Fitch, everybody. I love this place. Whenever I come back to AKA I am very happy. I feel like I am a part of their family.”
Nurmagomedov has certainly made a lasting impression on American Kickboxing Academy Javier Mendez.
“Khabib originally went to Greg Jackson for his first fight,” the gym’s head coach explains. “For whatever reason, he then decided he wanted to come to us. I think it was because we have wrestlers like Cain and DC. His love is more wrestling.
The thing about him that’s amazing is he’s got so much more growth.
“He’s like a beginner in the standup game. He’s such a great student of the arts. It’s really easy to teach him stuff and train.
"He’s so accepting of new ways. He’s nothing but a joy to train. He’s still got maybe 35% striking and 5% grappling (to improve). It’s hard to say how much more he can do on the grappling because he’s the best there is.
"He’s the best there has ever been in the lightweight division. The kid is unbelievable.”
What has also impressed Mendez is the deep-rooted Dagestani belief system of respect and calmness Khabib possesses.
“The one thing they value a lot is respect. Respect your elders. Respect is huge with them. And also loyalty. He, above everyone else, emphasizes all that – loyalty and respect. I don’t practice any religion. But I leave those who are devout to do what they choose. That’s their life. They choose that. But he’s a very good person.”
Back in Dagestan, and Khabib the warrior is back on the subject of his next foe. “This is my life, my career. I’m preparing all the time, waiting for the UFC to give me a fight. I love competition. I know I deserve a title but I know I have made mistakes as well.
“If the UFC give me Tony Ferguson I’ll say, hey, no problem. If you want me to fight Ferguson, give me an interim belt. I need a guarantee. The interim belt for me is fake but if the UFC gives me this I will take it because when you win the interim belt you have to fight for the real belt next.
“(Deep down) I think I’m going to fight Ferguson first. I don’t want to wait for the summer. Tony deserves it and I deserve it.
"Nine and eight-fight win streaks. We deserve it. We should fight in March and the winner should fight for the title in July or August against Conor McGregor. That’s the best idea for the lightweight division.”
Preparing for war
There was some criticism that Johnson, Khabib’s opponent at UFC 205, caught him hard and often early in the contest with his left hand. And we know what McGregor can do with his left hand. Yet Khabib suggests it was all part of his ploy. He was conditioning himself for a McGregor matchup.
He laughs: “That was my plan. I’m going to make him tired, I’m going to make him miss. People don’t understand it. He caught me a couple of times but I was fine. Before, nobody could catch me. In my whole career, nobody could catch me. I have to know how I feel when somebody catches me. How my body reacts.
“That’s why I make him miss but didn’t mind when he caught me a couple of times. I kept going, made him tired, took him down and finished him. This is what I want to do.
"All the time you have to test yourself because you never know when something happens how your body will deal with it.”
Hardline philosophy and perhaps a risky one, too. But nothing comes easy in this game, especially in the shark-infested waters of its strongest division.
Back at AKA, I ask Mendez his view on the current title picture. “Khabib matches up well with Tony. Tony is good everywhere, a very dangerous fighter. It will be down to what type of holes both men can find in the other’s game. It’s a great matchup.
“With McGregor – if that fight ever materializes – it’s going to be down to who can dominate what. Can Conor keep it stood up? Can Khabib take him down? Khabib has various ways of taking him down. He’s not just one-dimensional.
"He’s an artist at taking you down. That’s going to be a hard puzzle for anybody to solve. Nobody has been able to do it yet. It’s going to be difficult for anybody to stop him.”
Mendez adds: “Honestly, it’s a bad matchup for them. Look, he’s done some great things. He’s the number one draw in the sport, probably ever. He’s probably looking at bigger and better things.
“My gut feeling, the way they’re talking, they’ll likely go after Tyron Woodley for the welterweight title. He’s in control of whatever destiny he wants. All we can do is stay in control of what’s best for Khabib.
"First thing in order is to get that interim title if they order it against Ferguson. After that, it doesn’t matter what Conor does because Khabib will either fight him or the title will be his. Khabib will take on all comers. He wants to prove he’s the best.”
That sentiment is echoed by the destroyer from the East. “Bring on McGregor,” Khabib declares, as he packs belongings into a bag destined for the Dagestani mountainside.
“I hope he fights me. I really do believe I am the best in the division. 2017 will be my year. I’m going to smash Tony Ferguson, and then, by the end of the summer there will be a new undefeated and undisputed lightweight champion.”
We will wait to see – but in 2016, ‘The Eagle’ truly landed. Came, saw, and is conquering.
The hat and 'The Eagle'
Famed as much for his fighting prowess, Khabib is also known for his Papakha, the hirsute headdress made out of karakul sheep skin.
Traditionally, it is removed at the end of a blood feud between tribes and allows a young warrior to fling the garment to a woman in a wooing gesture.
It is deep, symbolic and Khabib is deeply aware of that by taking it into the Octagon.
“This is traditional headgear from Dagestan. I want to show around the world how big our history and culture is.
I take the headgear all the time with me, when I go to the ring, when I go to the cage. I want to show where I am from.”
Then there is his fighting name – ‘The Eagle’. “My name is a little bit hard for American people to say, and my manager said I have to take on some kind of nickname. So I said, ‘Hey, Eagle tells the people where I am from. It’s the symbol of Dagestan and Russia. Let’s go with Eagle.”
Worlds apart
There could not be a greater contrast between Nurmagomedov’s bases of Eastern Europe and West Coast America.
“In Dagestan, a lot of people are living in the mountains, but we live in the city too. When I come home from fights, it gives me new spirit, new motivation, it reminds me where I am from, why I am fighting.
"Here, we have sea, we have mountains, we have a lot of tough guys. It’s a tough life. This is not like California,” he says.
“California is the best life in the world. Dagestan is not like this. That’s why all the time I say thank you to God for giving me everything I want. He has given me a very good MMA career. That’s why I thank God and my father all the time.
I came to California to fight and make money. I have everything I need. But I know I have to stay loyal and stay humble, and that’s why Dagestan is everything to me.
“When I go to the mountains, a lot of people from my village come too. Believe me, this is not good for my weight,” he laughs. “I enjoy my people, my family.
"Everybody makes barbecue and eats together and talks. They have a million questions about America. When the UFC gives me a call, I move to the mountains to get a little bit of rest and then I go to California for training camp.”
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