UFC featherweight Zabit Magomedsharipov is clearly struggling to find sparring partners during the lockdown.
Magomedsharipov has taken a leaf out of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s book by looking outside of the human race for good, hard rounds. The lightweight champion is famously known for wrestling with bears during his formative years. Now, the 145lb contender has followed suit by bringing in a goat for sparring. Check out the footage which was posted to Magomedsharipov’s official Instagram account yesterday.
???? ??? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ????????)))Magomedsharipov fought most recently against fellow contender Calvin Kattar in November 2019. The Russian scored a unanimous decision victory in the fight stretching his winning streak to fourteen in a row, with six of them coming inside the UFC octagon. He’s now on the cusp of a featherweight title shot and has been linked to a fight with former title challenger Brian Ortega.
Despite his world-class ability Magomedsharipov has received constant criticism for his inability to keep pace throughout the three rounds. In a number of his UFC fights the Russian has clearly faded allowing his opponent back into the bout. This is a problem he recognizes and is working to fix but he seemed frustrated about the amount of focus that is put on the issue.
“I wouldn’t say that I’ve got the best endurance,” Magomedsharipov told Russia Today. “I have no problems going five rounds during training. Sometimes my weight cut doesn’t go as planned. I can get sick. I use up a lot of energy, when you kick it takes a lot of you. If it’s just boxing, I can easily go five rounds. When you do the same thing all the time, it doesn’t take much energy.”
“At first it was annoying. Now, I don’t pay attention to it. Every other person I meet wants to talk about endurance. Everything’s okay, but it definitely gets tiring,” he said. “It must be contagious; every other person tells you the same thing. I have trainers, after all, they probably know what I’m missing. I know myself.”
Who would you like to see Zabit Magomedsharipov fight next?