Sorry, Khabib fans. AKA coach Javier Mendez is taking back prior comments where he implied Khabib might return for another fight in the future.
Remember that story from the weekend where AKA head trainer Javier Mendez strongly implied that Khabib Nurmagomedov might be preparing to return to fighting? Well, it ain’t happening. So sayeth … Javier Mendez.
“Only when he fights he trains with me. That I can tell you,” Mendez said in the earlier report. “Whether he fights or not, I don’t know. But he’s training with me so you can take that for what it’s worth.”
“His feet are in the water, but he hasn’t dived in,” Mendez continued. “I know this, he’s training with me, because I’m training him. I know that. And he says ‘Coach, this time we have more time to work because I’m not in fight mode yet. Yet!”
BREAKING: Exclusive from Coach Javier Mendez, Khabib will NOT be fighting at #UFC300 pic.twitter.com/eINqXC3rZn
— Helen Yee (@HelenYeeSports) January 13, 2024
A few too many people took that for what it was worth, and now the American Kickboxing Academy is having to clarify that Khabib isn’t coming back.
“Stop all this nonsense regarding Khabib coming back and me and him training,” he said with an exasperated laugh. “There’s been no such thing happening. We’re not discussing training. We never have. Khabib is still devoted to what he said: He’s devoted his time to his family. He’s not working people’s corners. He’s not gonna ever fight. To my knowledge, it has never been spoken about.”
“Nothing has ever been discussed about fighting,” he reiterated. “No training, no nothing. We trained together, actually, but we’re doing cardio, we weren’t doing any kind of kickboxing or any kind of MMA training whatsoever. So … stop with the clickbait. Got it?”
My brother in Christ, you were the one that said the things! You’re the one selling premium top-shelf four-star tackle shop bait! Are we supposed to ignore it when Khabib’s former coach says these things?
With UFC 300 speculation at an all-time high, it’s unsurprising that people immediately started matchmaking Khabib up with Leon Edwards and Georges St-Pierre. If it’s untrue, we bet Khabib is pretty peeved. He ghosted the sport almost completely in 2023 as part of an attempt to live a normal life. Now he’s got more comeback talk in 2024 to look forward to.
So we just have to wonder … why did Javier hype up a potential return, knowing all this?