Khabib Nurmagomedov's Legacy
Khabib Nurmagomedov is an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter who was born in Dagestan, Russia. He was born in a muslim family and raised as a strict muslim. He had his pro fighting debut at 2008. He used to fight at TFC, M-1, ProFC and many other fight organizations. Currently he's fighting under UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship). He has an unbeaten record of 26-0 and in UFC, his record is 10-0 including today's title-fight victory over Alex Iaquinta. This is Mashhud Hasan from frenzyweb360 and today I'm going to talk about Khabib Nurmagomedov's walk of life.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the most dominant forces of the combat sports world. Having no loss in his entire pro career and winning most of his wins by dominating fashion has made him labeled as the most aggressive fighter in the Lightweight division. He grew up in Dagestan, one of the most dangerous environments where murdering and bombing is a day to day activity. He used to wrestle with a bear and there was a video of him wrestling with a bear when he was 9 years old. Khabib has a Sambo background and he was two time World Sambo Championship winner(at 2009 and 2010 in 74 kg & 82 kg division respectively). Basically Sambo is a fight format which has a combination of striking, grappling and wrestling. Khabib has cemented his experience in this format and that's the reason he has such sturdy take-down skills and solid clinch game. Comparing to other departments, his striking is comparably less impressive but still he manages to achieve victory whenever and whoever he fights. Khabib also has black-belt in Judo. This is also one of the reasons why he can take-down fighters from the back with such skill and power. Khabib's biggest wins are against Rafael Dos Anjos, Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, Pat Healy and very recently Alex Iaquinta. Currently he's riding on a 26-fight winning streak and he's looking forward to lengthen it.
Khabib's strongest side is his wrestling. He used to fight in Welterweight division and he spars with bigger and more muscular guys like Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez. That's the reason he has unbelievable amount of power. Due to his high agility, he has the capability to take-down any opponents from any conditions. We saw him hip-tossing Rafael Dos Anjos who is a 3rd degree black-belt in BJJ. We also saw him upper-body throwing tall framed Pat Healy at UFC165. He doesn't really target for the double legs unless his opponent has a resilient sprawl-game. Most of the time he goes for the single-leg take-downs. As like today, he attempted for many single leg take-downs against Iaquinta and most of the time he was successful. Edson Barboza was also really good at take-down defenses and we saw Edson Knocking out Beneil Dariush by knee strike while Beneil was attempting for a double leg. But when Edson fought Khabib, he got absolutely dominated on the ground. Edson threw some lethal kicks, he landed a solid spinning wheel kick on Khabib's chin but it didn't put any impacts due to Khabib having granite chin and durability. Khabib is also very good at clinch positions. We saw him landing some vicious elbows on Pat Healy. He is very good at landing elbows, body shots and knees during the clinch position. He is also good at dragging his opponents from clinch to ground and starts ground and pounding. Khabib's strong side is, he is flat footed but generates huge power. He implements the elastic recoil of his body and slowly but consistently generates power. He also has the cardio to consistently generate power and keep the pace from the top to bottom of the fight. That's the reason he dominates every single of his opponents on the ground.
Khabib is also good at ground-games. He is very active, durable and his mobility on the ground is very impressive. Even on the half-mount position, he keeps the control of the ground. On the full mount position, he becomes absolutely destructive. He keeps hitting elbows, ground n' pounds when he's at the full-mount of opponent's frontier. At the back, he throws hammer-fists and targets for RNC. He's really crafty on the ground. He doesn't really attempt for any unorthodox chokes like Tony Ferguson does but he always keeps mauling his opponents on the ground. We saw him ground and pounding viciously against Michael Johnson and finishing him with a Kimura. We also saw his devastation on the ground against Barboza. He also finished former olympic wrestler Kamal Shalorus by RNC. And most recently we saw him dominating Iaquinta on the ground. Iaquinta didn't throw a single punch on the ground whereas Khabib landed 51 ground strikes. The nitty-gritty is, Khabib is one of the craziest grapplers in UFC.
Now let's analyze his fight against Iaquinta that broke down today at UFC223. There were so many dramas about Khabib's opponent during the preparation times of UFC223. Tony Ferguson is a long-time rival of Khabib and he was selected to be his opponent of this title fight. Tony got injured by tripping, Then they've selected Max Holloway as the opponent but Holloway was 170lbs 3 days before the fight-day and it wasn't possible for him to cut to 155lbs. He also pulled out. Then Anthony Pettis was on the line but he weighted 0.2lbs more than the championship weight. Paul Felder was also on the consideration but finally, Alex Iaquinta was able to get the title fight but the title-shot was only applicable for Khabib. Even though Iaquinta is ranked #11 but he doesn't belong there and deserves higher ranking. He has knock-out power on both of his hands. He has a solid standup game and a background at wrestling. He got associate degree from Nassau Community College and has a purple belt in BJJ under Matt Serra. His striking is really good, he has some knockout wins over Joe Lauzon, Diego Sanchez and many. His wrestling is also very good. Overall he is a well-rounded fighter. That's why his fight against Khabib created many attentions before the fight.
In the fight between Khabib and Iaquinta, Khabib dominated the entire fight like he always does. He always looked for a single leg and most of the time succeeded on taking Iaquinta down. In the first two rounds, Khabib dominated whole time on the ground, he went on his back and threw many hammer-fists. At the 3rd and 4th round, Khabib wanted to brawl with Iaquinta in the standup. Khabib has some holes in his standup and Iaquinta landed some clean haymakers on Khabib but Khabib threw many jabs. Khabib's strategy was to expose his chin by hanging his jabbing hand down to insist Iaquinta for throwing a haymaker. Whenever Iaquinta was going for a cross, either Khabib was dodging it or he was slipping right and landing an overhand to the head or a lead-hook to the body. When Iaquinta was lunging forward, Khabib was pulling up his jabs. Those were effective to win rounds but not to dominate rounds. But overall Khabib was successful at controlling the distance, feinting some jabs and exchanging punches. Khabib landed 115 distance strikes while Iaquinta landed 23. Iaquinta was always prepared for double legs but Khabib pulled off single leg take-downs most of the times. In total, Khabib successfully executed 8 take-downs. Due to Khabib's superior level grappling, he was able to damage Iaquinta constantly on the ground. He landed 51 ground strikes and 13 clinch strikes over Iaquinta. Khabib was also able to keep up the same pace from first to last round of the fight. At the last round Khabib was really aggressive at the end of the round just like Iaquinta was at the beginning of the round. Iaquinta also showed no sign of giving up when he was getting mauled at the ground. But overall Khabib dominated the fight. Even after doing things that are out of his gameplans, he was still able to pull off victory over a tough opponent. And finally he became the UFC LW champion, a goal that he was dreaming for long time.
After the fight, many people criticized Khabib's striking and some of them even mentioned that if there was Conor or Ferguson in place of Iaquinta, then Khabib would lose. But a thing to notice that Khabib wasn't able to stick-up with a certain gameplan since UFC was continuously changing his opponents. Finally he got Iaquinta and he knew Iaquinta was more of a wellrounded fighter than a striking-oriented fighter and that's why Khabib decided to brawl with him in standup. He would never do this against Conor McGregor or Max Holloway and these guys don't have the ground-game, wrestling and sprawl-game that Iaquinta has. Yet Iaquinta got dominated on the ground. I think Holloway or Conor wouldn't keep up with Khabib's grappling on the ground. And after being weak in standup, Khabib was still able to beat Iaquinta in standup as well. Iaquinta is a menace in kick-boxing yet he wasn't able to overpower Khabib with his striking. You can't expect from a complete wrestling-oriented fighter to do more than this against such crafty striker like Iaquinta. The only problem of Khabib was to do things that were out of his gameplan at 3rd & 4th round, even though he successfully made it. Other than that, this is a very impressive win.
Muslim fight fans all around the world support Khabib and Khabib is representing muslims in UFC. He is a dedicating muslim. Currently his corner-man Islam Makhachev also fights in UFC. Khabib's elder brother Abubakar Nurmagomedov is also going to have his debut in UFC at Welterweight. He is our pride. All of us are hoping from him to cement his legacy and end up his career as an undisputed undefeated UFC Lightweight Champ.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the most dominant forces of the combat sports world. Having no loss in his entire pro career and winning most of his wins by dominating fashion has made him labeled as the most aggressive fighter in the Lightweight division. He grew up in Dagestan, one of the most dangerous environments where murdering and bombing is a day to day activity. He used to wrestle with a bear and there was a video of him wrestling with a bear when he was 9 years old. Khabib has a Sambo background and he was two time World Sambo Championship winner(at 2009 and 2010 in 74 kg & 82 kg division respectively). Basically Sambo is a fight format which has a combination of striking, grappling and wrestling. Khabib has cemented his experience in this format and that's the reason he has such sturdy take-down skills and solid clinch game. Comparing to other departments, his striking is comparably less impressive but still he manages to achieve victory whenever and whoever he fights. Khabib also has black-belt in Judo. This is also one of the reasons why he can take-down fighters from the back with such skill and power. Khabib's biggest wins are against Rafael Dos Anjos, Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, Pat Healy and very recently Alex Iaquinta. Currently he's riding on a 26-fight winning streak and he's looking forward to lengthen it.
Khabib's strongest side is his wrestling. He used to fight in Welterweight division and he spars with bigger and more muscular guys like Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold and Cain Velasquez. That's the reason he has unbelievable amount of power. Due to his high agility, he has the capability to take-down any opponents from any conditions. We saw him hip-tossing Rafael Dos Anjos who is a 3rd degree black-belt in BJJ. We also saw him upper-body throwing tall framed Pat Healy at UFC165. He doesn't really target for the double legs unless his opponent has a resilient sprawl-game. Most of the time he goes for the single-leg take-downs. As like today, he attempted for many single leg take-downs against Iaquinta and most of the time he was successful. Edson Barboza was also really good at take-down defenses and we saw Edson Knocking out Beneil Dariush by knee strike while Beneil was attempting for a double leg. But when Edson fought Khabib, he got absolutely dominated on the ground. Edson threw some lethal kicks, he landed a solid spinning wheel kick on Khabib's chin but it didn't put any impacts due to Khabib having granite chin and durability. Khabib is also very good at clinch positions. We saw him landing some vicious elbows on Pat Healy. He is very good at landing elbows, body shots and knees during the clinch position. He is also good at dragging his opponents from clinch to ground and starts ground and pounding. Khabib's strong side is, he is flat footed but generates huge power. He implements the elastic recoil of his body and slowly but consistently generates power. He also has the cardio to consistently generate power and keep the pace from the top to bottom of the fight. That's the reason he dominates every single of his opponents on the ground.
Khabib is also good at ground-games. He is very active, durable and his mobility on the ground is very impressive. Even on the half-mount position, he keeps the control of the ground. On the full mount position, he becomes absolutely destructive. He keeps hitting elbows, ground n' pounds when he's at the full-mount of opponent's frontier. At the back, he throws hammer-fists and targets for RNC. He's really crafty on the ground. He doesn't really attempt for any unorthodox chokes like Tony Ferguson does but he always keeps mauling his opponents on the ground. We saw him ground and pounding viciously against Michael Johnson and finishing him with a Kimura. We also saw his devastation on the ground against Barboza. He also finished former olympic wrestler Kamal Shalorus by RNC. And most recently we saw him dominating Iaquinta on the ground. Iaquinta didn't throw a single punch on the ground whereas Khabib landed 51 ground strikes. The nitty-gritty is, Khabib is one of the craziest grapplers in UFC.
Now let's analyze his fight against Iaquinta that broke down today at UFC223. There were so many dramas about Khabib's opponent during the preparation times of UFC223. Tony Ferguson is a long-time rival of Khabib and he was selected to be his opponent of this title fight. Tony got injured by tripping, Then they've selected Max Holloway as the opponent but Holloway was 170lbs 3 days before the fight-day and it wasn't possible for him to cut to 155lbs. He also pulled out. Then Anthony Pettis was on the line but he weighted 0.2lbs more than the championship weight. Paul Felder was also on the consideration but finally, Alex Iaquinta was able to get the title fight but the title-shot was only applicable for Khabib. Even though Iaquinta is ranked #11 but he doesn't belong there and deserves higher ranking. He has knock-out power on both of his hands. He has a solid standup game and a background at wrestling. He got associate degree from Nassau Community College and has a purple belt in BJJ under Matt Serra. His striking is really good, he has some knockout wins over Joe Lauzon, Diego Sanchez and many. His wrestling is also very good. Overall he is a well-rounded fighter. That's why his fight against Khabib created many attentions before the fight.
In the fight between Khabib and Iaquinta, Khabib dominated the entire fight like he always does. He always looked for a single leg and most of the time succeeded on taking Iaquinta down. In the first two rounds, Khabib dominated whole time on the ground, he went on his back and threw many hammer-fists. At the 3rd and 4th round, Khabib wanted to brawl with Iaquinta in the standup. Khabib has some holes in his standup and Iaquinta landed some clean haymakers on Khabib but Khabib threw many jabs. Khabib's strategy was to expose his chin by hanging his jabbing hand down to insist Iaquinta for throwing a haymaker. Whenever Iaquinta was going for a cross, either Khabib was dodging it or he was slipping right and landing an overhand to the head or a lead-hook to the body. When Iaquinta was lunging forward, Khabib was pulling up his jabs. Those were effective to win rounds but not to dominate rounds. But overall Khabib was successful at controlling the distance, feinting some jabs and exchanging punches. Khabib landed 115 distance strikes while Iaquinta landed 23. Iaquinta was always prepared for double legs but Khabib pulled off single leg take-downs most of the times. In total, Khabib successfully executed 8 take-downs. Due to Khabib's superior level grappling, he was able to damage Iaquinta constantly on the ground. He landed 51 ground strikes and 13 clinch strikes over Iaquinta. Khabib was also able to keep up the same pace from first to last round of the fight. At the last round Khabib was really aggressive at the end of the round just like Iaquinta was at the beginning of the round. Iaquinta also showed no sign of giving up when he was getting mauled at the ground. But overall Khabib dominated the fight. Even after doing things that are out of his gameplans, he was still able to pull off victory over a tough opponent. And finally he became the UFC LW champion, a goal that he was dreaming for long time.
After the fight, many people criticized Khabib's striking and some of them even mentioned that if there was Conor or Ferguson in place of Iaquinta, then Khabib would lose. But a thing to notice that Khabib wasn't able to stick-up with a certain gameplan since UFC was continuously changing his opponents. Finally he got Iaquinta and he knew Iaquinta was more of a wellrounded fighter than a striking-oriented fighter and that's why Khabib decided to brawl with him in standup. He would never do this against Conor McGregor or Max Holloway and these guys don't have the ground-game, wrestling and sprawl-game that Iaquinta has. Yet Iaquinta got dominated on the ground. I think Holloway or Conor wouldn't keep up with Khabib's grappling on the ground. And after being weak in standup, Khabib was still able to beat Iaquinta in standup as well. Iaquinta is a menace in kick-boxing yet he wasn't able to overpower Khabib with his striking. You can't expect from a complete wrestling-oriented fighter to do more than this against such crafty striker like Iaquinta. The only problem of Khabib was to do things that were out of his gameplan at 3rd & 4th round, even though he successfully made it. Other than that, this is a very impressive win.
Muslim fight fans all around the world support Khabib and Khabib is representing muslims in UFC. He is a dedicating muslim. Currently his corner-man Islam Makhachev also fights in UFC. Khabib's elder brother Abubakar Nurmagomedov is also going to have his debut in UFC at Welterweight. He is our pride. All of us are hoping from him to cement his legacy and end up his career as an undisputed undefeated UFC Lightweight Champ.
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