Is Magomed Ankalaev part of Team Khabib? It’s a fair question. The Dagestani light heavyweight has a dominant, wrestling-heavy style that reminds fans of Khabib Nurmagomedov and his team. Given the similarities in their approach to fighting, many have assumed that Ankalaev is also a product of the legendary camp.
But is that actually the case?
Early life and upbringing
Ankalaev was born on June 2, 1992, in Teletl’, a village in Russia’s Dagestan region. Growing up in a family of Avar descent, he was introduced to wrestling early on. While attending Dagestan State University, where he studied at the Faculty of Sports, the 205er trained in Greco-Roman wrestling for a year.
He then transitioned to combat sambo, earning the title of Master of Sports in the discipline. This foundation paved the way for his successful career in mixed martial arts.
Where does Anakalev train?
Since the start of his MMA career, Ankalaev has stayed loyal to one main team—Fight Club Akhmat. Founded by the warlord Ramzan Kadyrov (of the Khamzat Chimaev fame, if you can say that), the Chechen-based gym has produced some serious UFC talent and has even been a training spot for former heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum.
Back home in Russia, Ankalaev hones his skills under coaches Sukhrab Magomedov and Alibatyrov Shamil, but when he’s prepping for fights in the UFC, he switches things up.
Whenever he’s in the United States, Ankalaev trains with Eric Nicksick at Xtreme Couture, one of the most respected MMA gyms in the game.
But it’s not just about coaching—Ankalaev has some serious training partners in both locations. While in Dagestan, he sharpens his game with other Russian standouts, and in the U.S., he’s gone toe-to-toe with former middleweight champ Sean Strickland and other top-level fighters that Nicksick works with.
Interestingly, Strickland has also been training with his opponent for UFC 313, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. Pereira and Strickland had fought for the title at middleweight at UFC 276 in July 2022.
And although Strickland had thoroughly lost the one-sided affair, he has since become best friends with the Brazilian champion. So much so that during his 185 lbs title challenge against Dricus du Plessis at UFC earlier this year, Pereira was present as a cornerman.
So, perhaps Ankalaev’s fight camp for his title campaign at UFC didn’t involve a whole lot of running around with the American.
This brings us to the Khabib question.
Now, the assumption that Ankalaev and Khabib train together stems from the fact that they share a motherland. People also presume that since Ankalaev is Dagestani, his wrestling is just in the same league as the lighter weight class counterparts from his country, namely, Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov.
However, that is not the case. While Ankalaev is a wrestling-dominant fighter, he is perhaps not as dependent on it. The 205-er is a far more efficient striker than he gets credit for. And it’s all thanks to the time he spends at Xtreme Courture in the US.
Meanwhile, Khabib and his crew typically train at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) under Javier Mendez.
