AKA head coach Javier Mendez believes Khabib Nurmagomedov’s UFC 209 weight issues were blown out of proportion.
One of the biggest might-have-beens for 2017 was the interim title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, which was supposed to take place at UFC 209 last March. But due to health issues which were believed to be rooted in a bad weight cut, Khabib had to pull out the day before the fight.
But according to his coach Javier Mendez, fans may have overblown these issues.
“You know, the last time, people were making too much of his weight cut, talking about it was disastrous, he wasn’t gonna make weight, just because his opponent says he wasn’t gonna make weight and he made fun of it,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “He was on schedule to make weight, his body just failed on him. It’s like, how many times do you see a fighter get ready for a fight and all of a sudden kidney stones or something happens to him.”
“Look, it does have a lot to do with losing weight that causes these problems, but it wasn’t that he wasn’t gonna make weight, he was gonna make weight, he wasn’t over anything, he was just like where he normally is. And just the thing with Khabib is, he doesn’t like to say anything about it, and he still won’t say anything about it.”
People point to Khabib’s possible indiscretions with his diet, particularly when he spoke about eating tiramisu during one of the Embedded episodes for UFC 209. Khabib had already denied this, and so did Mendez.
“And then there’s that tiramisu bullshit. You know, he don’t eat that stuff, he never ate that stuff,” Mendez said. “He’s with a bunch of fighters that aren’t in camp and not fighting, so they’re not allowed to eat because he’s not allowed to eat? It’s like stupid, you know? Too much has been made up of something that wasn’t even there.”
Khabib says his weight is now “perfect” for his upcoming UFC 219 co-headliner against Edson Barboza. It is set to take place on December 30th in Las Vegas.