‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.’ Coach Javier Mendez possibly knows and believes in the age-old adage but doesn’t have to bother drilling it into his fighters. His trainees with Team Khabib usually come loaded with talent, and an indomitable will to work hard for success. It’s why he believes Dagestan will continue to shell out assembly lines of world beaters.
Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, the newly-crowned champion Magomed Ankalaev… Mendez believes there’s more to come. For years now, fighters from the region — led by Khabib and now Makhachev — have dominated the sport, courtesy of a system of disciplined training embedded in them through the martial culture and tradition of Dagestan.
Dagestan, a region smaller than the size of West Virginia, has managed to win multiple Olympic gold medals not just for Russia but many other countries. And their forte is combat sports like wrestling, judo, and taekwondo.
Sambo and wrestling are the region’s most popular sports, ingrained in their cultural fabric. Now that this mountainous region has shifted its focus to MMA, the Dagestani fighters look unstoppable in the various promotions across the world, including the UFC.
At UFC 313 last weekend, Ankalaev became the first Dagestani light heavyweight champion of the world. While discussing the card, Mendez claimed he would not be the last either. “I don’t think there is any other section, other than Dagestan that has more champions right now,” said the coach, before stating the reasons for his belief.
“I can see this continuing, because of the way they train over there, how disciplined they are, they have their system down. They know what to do, they know how to train, they know where to train. They have everything they need,” added Mendez.
Mendez isn’t the first person to say so. Everybody in the MMA community has seen the hilarious video of Islam asking Daniel Cormier to send his kids to Dagestan for two-three years and forget about them. Cormier did not send his kids though. But he had sent a youth team to Dagestan some time ago.
Speaking about the experience on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2023, DC described what the students told him after they returned to the States.
“Bro, I took those kids when they were in seventh and eighth grade, and I sent them to Dagestan for a month. They took all of their schoolwork and they went to Dagestan and Moscow for a month,” he said.
Khabib, of course, took care of everything the kids and the accompanying parents needed. He also took a personal interest in training them. The kids came back and told DC: “Coach, we practice with you. In Dagestan, it’s training. It’s in the morning, it’s in the mid-day, it’s in the evening. You’re training all day.”
They informed DC that they would do 30 minutes of just gymnastics before practice. That was to improve flexibility, build body coordination, control, and everything in between. “They are operating at a different level, man,” DC concluded.
This is a daily routine for teenagers training at Khabib’s academy. And it doesn’t stop there, either.
Mendez experiences how good Dagestani kids are at wrestling
Mendez often talks about his travels to Dagestan, and it was during one of these tours that he realized that training in Dagestan is more a way of life.
One story that stuck with him was when he was with Islam, who told him about a casual day out he had with friends. He described where they went on a picnic, rode horses, and cooked together. But even during the relaxed outing, training wasn’t far from their minds.
While the food was being prepared, the kids started wrestling each other — completely on their own. “They are out there wrestling. They are putting their kids together, and they wrestle with each other. They are just going at it, and I am amazed how good they were,” Mendez recalled.
Once they were done, the kids shook hands and went right back to enjoying the day. This is the Dagestani way — competition and discipline aren’t confined to the gym or fight camps.
It’s this mentality that has made Dagestani fighters some of the most dominant athletes in mixed martial arts today.
