Show up for MMA class in Dagestan with hair too long, and you’re getting spanked!
It’s unsurprising that Khabib Nurmagomedov runs a tight ship when it comes to how the Club Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov School in Makhachkala, Dagestan, is operated. Things are so strict there, apparently, that showing up with hair too long results in a caning with a bamboo stick.
This fun little tidbit of Caucasus life comes to us via Smesh MMA, a YouTube channel that recently shared footage of a hair inspection and the punishment for not keeping things neat and tight.
“In Khabib’s gym there is a haircut code that you can’t break,” a narrator says. “If you do, here is the punishment.”
In the video, an instructor walks down a line of assembled students, pulling out anyone with unacceptable hair. Even some students with close-cropped and short hair get singled out, and everyone who has failed the test gets a solid smack with a rod. Fortunately for everyone involved, it’s not a legit caning or anything, but the instructor does hit them hard enough for the stick to snap loudly.
Khabib is known for keeping his hair shaved short — long enough to keep sweat from streaming down his face, but short enough so it doesn’t result in too much friction during grappling exchanges. The requirement is apparently a holdover from when Khabib’s dad Abdulmanap ran the gym, so they’re keeping up the tradition with the next generation of Dagestani killers.
While training at American Kickboxing Academy, Nurmagomedov has joked around about his very specific fight cut in past videos.
“I cannot cut this, because I look like Eddie Munster,” Khabib said, laughing. “DC [Daniel Cormier] says I can’t cut it because I look like Eddie Munster. He says I look like him.”