Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father will be a crucial part of the training camp of his son going into his next title defense against Conor McGregor.
The former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion is slated to challenge Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title at the UFC 229 pay-per-view event.
Nurmagomedov’s latest bout was the biggest fight thus far in his pro-MMA career and he had to go through some hurdles to make it happen. While trying to fight in the main event of the UFC 223 pay-per-view event, it went through three official changes. Those changes include the UFC attempting to book Nurmagomedov against Tony Ferguson as well as Max Holloway and eventually fighting Al Iaquinta.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Father Sounds Off
Nurmagomedov’s father and coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, stated in an interview that this fight is a mismatch against an undeserving challenger. Nurmagomedov believes he doesn’t think that McGregor is next contender in line for the strap. Instead, Dustin Poirier is more deserving of a title shot.
“I think Conor understands that he wasn’t the real champion at 155 [pounds],” Abdulmanap said to Alexander Lyutikov (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “He only fought against two lightweights and one of them choked him out. When he took the belt, there were about six lightweights who were stronger than him.
“There are a lot of fighters who deserve a title shot more than Conor. For example, Poirier. He can keep a high pace, he tries to finish opponents. Poirier is the real contender.”
The Truth
Abdulmanap also broke down the fact that McGregor will need to work on his wrestling game for this fight, which is obvious. The interesting point that Abdulmanap made was the fact that he doesn’t think that there is one coach that can help him in time.
“Let’s put together the best wrestling coaches from Dagestan, Japan, USA, Turkey . . . even they will not be able to prepare McGregor for this fight in three months,” Abdulmanap said. “No one can help him. You can’t do that in such a short time. He needs to start studying it from the beginning. To improve his wrestling in several months, it’s impossible.
“[Conor is dangerous] for 8 to 9 minutes, no more. After the first clinch, Khabib will take him down. We will finish this fight when we want. We respect our fans. If they want to watch all five rounds, we will fight all five rounds. But after two rounds, he has nothing to do on his feet. After two rounds, he will not be able to do anything.”
The UFC 229 pay-per-view event is slated to take place on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The main card will air on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. ET while the preliminary card will air on FOX Sports 1 at 8 p.m. ET and the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass.
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