Long before he became the feared lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov was just a young fighter experiencing the world outside of Dagestan for the first time. He was curious, barely spoke any English, and just wanted to see a part of the world that was alien to him a few years ago.
There’s even a famous story often told by his coach Javier Mendez, where he talks about how Khabib would just keep grinding harder in training no matter how many times he was told to ease up. Mendez would later ask him why and Khabib would tell him he thought the coach was telling him that he was going too easy and needed to ramp it up!
This was of course, inside the gym. But when outside the shackles of MMA, Khabib would go out on the streets, clock pictures with people he was fascinated about. The is a similar video that captures Khabib encountering a street performer in the U.S. during one of his first visits.
The performer, dressed in a cowboy hat, was singing and playing the guitar when the former UFC lightweight champion decided to pose next to him while his friend filmed the moment. In the video, a young and seemingly hesitant Khabib can be heard thinking out loud, saying: “What should I say to him? I wonder if he would give me his hat. He will kick my a*s for his hat. He will perform a Kimura on me.”
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The resurfaced footage has quickly gone viral among MMA fans, who are enjoying this rare, lighthearted moment from The Eagle’s past. This was of course a time when the American experience was relatively new. After all, Khabib was just a kid from the Caucus Mountains.
But this did not mean that he was anything sort of a genius. For most people speaking two tongues is a privilege. Khabib, on the other hand, can communicate in a few more.
How many languages does Khabib speak?
Some time ago, Khabib’s mentee and the current UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev took some shots at Charles Oliveira. Even though Oliveira and Islam have since moved past it and become friends, this was before their title fight at UFC 284.
At a presser, Islam pointed out that Oliveira always talked about money but claimed he didn’t know how to make it, courtesy of his lack of English comprehension skills.
In a frustrated tone, he said, “He tried to always make [it about] money. But this guy doesn’t speak English. Nobody understands this guy, he doesn’t speak English. English is important if you wanna make money, you have to speak some language everybody understands. Nobody understands what he’s saying.”
Islam’s commitment to the English language is him essentially walking on the same path Khabib laid for him. As a matter of fact, almost all the fighters from Khabib’s camp speak English now.
However, did you know that for most of them, English is not even their second language?
For Islam, English is his third language, the same as it is for Khabib. But while Islam speaks Lak, Russian, and English, Khabib is reportedly fluent in 5 to 6 languages.
Keen-eared fans have heard him have conversations in Avar, Kumyk, Russian, English, Turkish and Arabic.
So, while some make fun of his broken English and some find it endearing, it should be noted that English is only his third language; something he only learned after coming to America as an adult! How many grown-ups can pick an entirely new language and just roll with it, while still being the best in the world at something else?
