Ever since retiring from MMA, Khabib Nurmagomedov has donned the hat of a coach and has been training fighters at AKA. He is determined to give the MMA world great fighters like himself.
However, his coach Javier Mendez believes that this shift in his new role hasn’t changed anything for the fighters at AKA. While doing a podcast with Mike Swick, Mendez commented on the new role of Khabib as a coach. He said:
“Nothing’s changed because khabib when he was fighting, he still was coaching these guys. He still was cornering these guys. So, for those guys, nothing has really changed much. Because Khabib is still in there grappling with these guys and whooping up on everybody.”
According to coach Javier, Khabib feels that in order to fight with the best grapplers in the world the fighters need to spar and grapple with him in training. Needless to say, no one is better than The Eagle himself to train with. But, Mendez informs that Khabib spars with every fighter who are below 200 pounds.
“He does it with all the aka guys everybody that’s within that weight variance. Not too heavy because you don’t want to go too heavy, guys. But, you know 200 pounds and under is good for Khabib.” Javier states.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is more than anything with Islam Makhachev
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev are childhood friends. hence, they share a special bond with each other. Coach Javier reveals that when Islam is done sparring khabib. The eagle corners Islam while he’s sparring. Which Javier calls “More than anything.”
Well, now that Khabib is a coach it makes sense. But, what’s surprising is that Khabib used to do the same while he was a fighter himself. Many fight fans will find it hard to believe that Khabib doesn’t take a single penny from Islam to train him. This shows how special their bond is. He even trained Makhchev for his recent victory against Thiago Moises in the main event at UFC Vegas 31.
Currently, Khabib Nurmagomedov has a record of 5-0 as a coach. With fighters like Islam, Umar, Abubakar as his trainee, it will be safe to say that The Eagle might have a similarly illustrious career as a coach like his fighting.
