“Not Traditional Wrestling”: Dustin Poirier Breaks Down Factors That Make Team Khabib ‘Dominant’ in MMA

Dustin Poirier recently reiterated that the use of Sambo was the primary reason behind ‘Team Khabib’ being so dominant in MMA. Sambo, a traditional Russian martial art that combines techniques from Judo and Wrestling, became popular when ‘The Eagle’ made his unbeaten run in the UFC. Since then, several Dagestani fighters have gotten into the UFC and proved the effectiveness of the technique.

The biggest example of Sambo’s effectiveness is the current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. He trained under both Khabib and his father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, and it was the Dagestani style of wrestling that helped him become the best in the division.

Dustin Poirier addressed this in a recent interview with Yahoo! Sports, where he revealed the point of difference between Team Khabib and other teams, saying,

“Those guys coming out of Dagestan, that whole team, they compete hard…I don’t see a whole lot of holes…Obviously his wrestling is good…not traditional wrestling.”

Furthermore, Poirier pointed out that what set the Dagestani camp apart was their discipline and determination to stick to the game plan. On top of it, their combat style is hard to counter, and fighters like Islam Makhachev barely have any holes in their game since he has trained alongside the best at Team Khabib.

Still, ‘The Diamond’ insisted that he wanted to give Islam Makhachev a taste of his own medicine during their UFC 302 fight, and is ready to try something that might break the internet.

Dustin Poirier talks about potentially jumping the guillotine against Islam Makhachev

Islam Makhachev has made fun of Dustin Poirier’s guillotine in an episode of the ‘Good Guy/ Bad Guy’ podcast with Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen. So, it would be poetic justice for Poirier to get the champ using the same move. In the same interview with Yahoo! Sports, Poirier spoke about jumping the guillotine in a clip uploaded by MMA Frenzy on X,

“I gotta do it, So I gotta jump it at least once….So we’ll see I just have to play it and see how I feel in there in those positions but I’ll probably jump it.”

Dustin Poirier’s coach Mike Brown is not a fan of the idea. He does not want his fighter to give up position trying to jump the guillotine. However, ‘The Diamond’ has been having great success with it in practice and he claims he has to jump it at least once during the fight just to take a jab at Makhachev for making fun of the move.