Former middleweight title challenger turned podcaster and pundit Chael Sonnnen has compared the Nurmagomedov family to ju jitsu and mixed martial arts pioneers the Gracies.
Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has recently been joined in the UFC by two of his relatives. Cousins Abubakar and Umar Nurmagomedov have both signed with the promotion bringing even more strength to the family name. So much strength that Sonnen has begun comparing them to MMA royalty, the Gracies.
The legendary Gracie family were pivotal during the early beginnings of MMA in the 1990’s. Royce Gracie showed the world how a smaller man can out grapple and submit much bigger opponents. He and his family quickly started a revolution that brings us to MMA as we see it today. Gracie family members still have an impact on the sport with fighters consistently coming through and appearing on the biggest and best promotions.
Speaking on his podcast, Sonnen offers the Nurmagomedov family high praise when comparing them to the pioneers of MMA and ju jitsu, he said.
“It seems to me that the Nurmagomedov’s, in many ways might be the next Gracies. I don’t believe that anyone will ever surpass the Gracie family in the ultimate hierarchy of mixed martial arts. They just did too much and they just did it at the right time. Yeah, they’re were a lot of them and they’re still coming through. They’re still coming! Second and third generations are still coming through. I don’t believe anyone will ever surpass them even if they have the numbers on their side.”
“Let’s look at what the
next best thing may be. If you’re talking about power in numbers, if you’re
talking about bloodline. It would seem the Nurmagomedovs are right there in
line to be number two for MMA family royalty.”
Do you believe the Nurmagomedov family is second strongest family name in MMA history?