Henry Cejudo got brutally honest while breaking down Khabib Nurmagomedov’s fighting style in a recent video of his YouTube series, “Fight Feedback.” The former two-division champion shared his thoughts on what makes Nurmagomedov special and gave an insight into the Dagestani fighter’s impeccable grappling.
It goes without saying, there couldn’t have been anyone better than Cejudo to break down the fighting style of arguably the greatest lightweight fighter of all time, Khabib Nurmagomedov. A former Olympic gold medalist and one of the greatest in MMA in his own right, Cejudo admitted that the fight between Nurmagomedov and McGregor is one of his favorites of all time. Not surprisingly really!
Henry Cejudo dives deep into the 21 takedowns from Khabib Nurmagomedov against Abel Trujillo
Henry Cejudo pointed out several details while breaking down Nurmagomedov’s dominant performance against Abel Trujillo which saw the Dagestani fighter land 21 takedowns during the course of the three rounds. To this day, Nurmagomedov holds the record for most takedowns landed during a fight.
“He’s not throwing legs as he normally would, not catching wrist.” Cejudo opined, “There’s no control, he’s not doing anything with the legs. Noting with the wrist.” Triple C said in the 24-minute-long video.
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While a lot of it might sound like criticism, Cejudo explains how a lot of what Khabib was not doing really helped him secure the feat. Nurmagomedov made Trujillo work, and to a huge extent wanted him to get up, just so he could take him down. “He’s allowing him to get up.”
Arguments have been made regarding Nurmagomedov’s incredible achievement and how the Dagestani fighter failed to keep Trujillo on the ground, leading to the 21 takedowns. However, according to Cejudo, Khabib was still very young in his mixed martial arts career, but always had the conditioning to do the things that he did. Constant pressure, slamming his opponents on the ground, and most importantly, “making them work.”
Check out the complete breakdown of Khabib Nurmagomedov from Henry Cejudo.
Be that as it may, Khabib Nurmagomedov went on to become one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, and one of the most popular names in the world of combat sports. It was Nurmagomedov’s tenacity and his ability to just stick to his game plan, which was to grapple that made him a dominant force inside the UFC.