AKA head coach Javier Mendez has played a big role in the careers of Islam Makhachev and Khabib Nurmagomedov. He has developed their striking abilities which have helped them in their UFC careers.
Moving on, Javier Mendez went on a podcast with Mike Swick and discussed a variety of topics which included the former lightweight champion’s striking skills. However, the main focus of this podcast was on AKA and Islam Makhachev. As a result, Javier Mendez revealed an interesting story about Khabib and Islam while speaking in the podcast.
He indicated that Islam Makhachev helped Khabib elevate his striking skills. Moreover, Mendez also reflected that Islam used to beat him during training, and as a result, he used that as fuel to step up his stand-up game and made some adjustments accordingly.
“Khabib got better at knees because he got tired of Islam beating the cr*p out of him. Islam beat the crap out of him so next thing you know, Khabib’s like ‘I’ve even got knee pads’ because I wouldn’t allow these guys to throw knees if they don’t have knee pads so I’ve been getting his knee pads because Islam is beating the cr*p out of him. So that’s how the progression came. That’s how good Islam was. So he was able to adapt and learn from other people while Khabib was more loyal.”
Therefore Khabib’s striking skills developed vastly as his career progressed as he went toe to toe and traded big shots against the likes of Conor McGregor, Justin Gaethje, and few others. Thus Islam helped Khabib expand his skills in terms of striking which helped him maintain his undefeated streak in MMA.
Javier Mendez believes that Islam Makhachev is a much better striker than Khabib Nurmagomedov
While speaking about Islam Makhachev in the Real Quick with Mike Swick Podcast, Javier Mendez explained that Islam Makhachev wanted to become a better striker and focus on his striking skills more than Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“He seemed to pick up on the striking more than Khabib and working with different people, not just me. He was open to the idea of working with different people so his progression and stand-up went higher than Khabib’s because Khabib was only loyal to me as his striking coach and his father as the other coach. Since his father was not a striking expert, he didn’t strike at home with anybody.”
As a result, there are high expectations of the Russian fighter as many fans believe that he has the potential to become one of the best fighters in the world. Moreover, Khabib has predicted that Islam Makhachev will become the lightweight champion in the future. Therefore there will be several eyes on the Russian fighter when he takes on Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC 267.
