While UFC stars like Islam Makhachev, and Usman Nurmagomedov were all vocal about Khabib Nurmagomedov’s rigorous and strict coaching, fans now have another champion who can attest to The Eagle’s insane training regimen.
Sharing his thoughts to Red Corner MMA, 2023 U23 World Championships gold medalist, ‘The Mauler’ Ibragim Ibragimov recently trained with the undefeated Dagestani, only to realize that once he starts, there’s no stop sign in sight.
“Yeah, he’s strict…So we’ve been training, we had drills in the morning, we finished sparring. After the bag workout, Khabib (Nurmagomedov) showed up and then we started doing wrestling… He set the timer up but there’s no time till I say stop.”
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Talking about a few more instances, the undefeated PFL featherweight shared how Nurmagomedov paces his athletes in his gym. While one might think the session’s done after rounds of sparring, coach Khabib then pushes you through five excruciating rounds of wrestling.
“You’re wrestling and then we’ll have to have like five fives of sparring, we’ll have to wrestle wrestle, like grappling grappling rounds just non stop like 20 minutes, everyone was dying but then when we finished he started giving us like some pushups and planks….Everyone was sweating, the gym was flooded with sweat!”
Now, that’s how champions are made – forged under pressure through relentless training. Earlier during Belal Muhammad’s welterweight title fight against then-champion Leon Edwards at UFc 304 in Manchester, England, the Palestinian-American had trained with the Dagestani camp.
In the beginning, it was mostly the younger Nurmagomedovs, Umar and Usman, and the UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. But then towards the end of the camp, Khabib joined in and Belal swears he would get tapped out by the former lightweight champion with impunity.
Mind you, this is a 170 lbs man, who currently sits at the top of the welterweight mountain, fighting a former lightweight champion who had retired a few years ago. But that’s how champions are made, if one were to hazard a guess!
Speaking of which, Ibragimov is currently gearing up for his next appearance in PFL, scheduled to fight on the Battle of the Giants card, main evented by Francis Ngannou and Rennan Ferreira.
Ibragimov gearing up for his second PFL bout
Ibragim Ibragimov might be a new name for many. But the Dagestani fighting out of England made serious waves after his PFL debut, defeating Josh Reed in the opening round via an arm triangle in Newcastle.
In fact, besides his grappling background, Ibragimov nicknamed ‘The Mauler’ is an excellent striker having several KO wins in his amateur MMA career.
He will look to further that record as he takes on Spain’s Nacho Campos in Saudi Arabia. Now, a title shot is what everyone aims for but it might be too soon for the 20-year-old Dagestani at this point. And he would agree. Khabib, himself had to fight for years and remain undefeated for him to even be considered for UFC gold.
Now, these are still early days in his MMA career, but if Ibragimov follows in the path of the master, there’s a good chance, he will come out on top!
