Khabib Nurmagomedov will go down as one of the best grapplers to have ever competed in the UFC. He could achieve the feat only after years of training in combat sambo under the able guidance of his father. ‘The Eagle’ was able to implement his sambo skills perfectly inside the octagon, garnering massive success in MMA. Soon after, others from his camp followed suit and the entire camp has become famous for their elite grappling skills. However, this approach has often been tagged as ‘boring’.
Most recently, Belal Muhammad’s coach also shared a similar opinion regarding ‘The Eagle’s camp and their method of training. Former PFL world champion turned coach, Louis Taylor has been working with Belal Muhammad for a while now.
Under his guidance, Muhammad is now on a nine-fight win streak and is next in line for a title shot. He recently appeared on the ‘Money Loyalty Legacy’ podcast. In the episode, Taylor mentioned why Belal got frustrated training with Khabib Nurmagomedov and his team. He said,
“From my perspective, it was like watching your baby drown. The thing is they’re basic. We got frustrated a lot because Belal is creative, they’re not. Each one of them is different, all of them have a base of grappling. Depending on who you go with, you might throw one kick. They are not training to be creative on the ground. Now you’re down and all the coaching goes to get up. Coaching from Khabib or anyone is going to be ‘get up’.”
Taylor went on to add that Muhammad inculcates striking a lot more in his game than Nurmagomedov and his team. Therefore, the sole focus on grappling did not work for Muhammad and he did not improve his game significantly by training with Nurmagomedov’s team.
Belal’s coach also termed their training as “basic”, while stating that more creativity is required for the fighters to flourish in the long run. A look at both the elite athlete’s fighting style might clarify things further.
Belal Muhammad’s approach to fighting compared to Khabib Nurmagomedov and his team
‘Remember the Name’ entered the UFC as a pure grappler. However, since then he has majorly improved on his striking. The most recent example of that is his brilliant knockout win over Sean Brady. Over the years, Muhammad has become extremely good at mixing up his game, which makes him extremely dangerous as a fighter.
His manager, Ali Abdelaziz, had recently confirmed that Muhammad would be heading to Dagestan to train with Nurmagomedov and his team. However, as his trainer mentioned, it did not allow Muhammad to work on his entire arsenal. Instead, for the most part, he was forced to be on his back and learn how to get back to his feet. According to Taylor, this did not add a lot of value to his overall game.
