Khabib Nurmagomedov's Mind-Game Leading Up To Fights
Khabib "The Eagle" Nurmagomedov is currently one of the most famous UFC fighters who was born in Dagestan. This Muslim Russian fighter has a record of 27-0 (Wins-Losses). Regardless of how good the opponents are, he always delivers a dominating victory. His boxing stance and strikings are very unorthodox and hard to predict. He has a high caliber take-down ability, clinch and grappling game. His conditioning is the most significant part of his fighting. No matter how much pressure he thrusts, he always pushes himself with same pace. His unlimited cardio is the reason he can keep the same pace till the last round. But aside of fighting skills, this man prepares some of his mental games as well. His mental conditioning is probably his most important asset. Leading up to his fight against Conor McGregor, Conor used the most of his trash talks related to Khabib's religion and nationality during the media days and conferences. By facing those insults, any normal person would get emotional. In the sport of fighting, if you get emotional, you get exposed. Khabib was very calm & collected and he was eagerly waiting to give his answer to all of Conor's trash talks by fighting inside the cage. Khabib's calmness helped him win this fight by both physically and mentally. He knows how to prepare for mental war-fares. This is Mashhud Hasan from Frenzyweb360 and in this content, I'm going to talk about Khabib's philosophy and mind-game that always helps him elevate ahead of his opponents.
Khabib's stamina and strength helps him grind his opponents up by pushing relentless pressure. Due to his unorthodox boxing and overwhelming ground-game, he can control the direction of fights. He knows how and when to change the levels of striking and when the opponent's lower-part of body gets exposed. Khabib works on his Jabs and overhands a lot and that's what insists his opponents to focus on countering or exchanging with Khabib's underrated striking. Whenever an opponent puts his focus on striking and exposes the lower part of his body, Khabib immediately shoots take-downs. He either takes his opponent down with a high volume flexion of hip, or he drags his opponent through the fence to badly damage via elbows and other short range punches to set-up take-downs. Khabib is a chain grappler but he doesn't really have any explosiveness in his body. But he has gained so much power is because of pushing his strength through sheer persistence. Strikers like Conor McGregor have fast twitch muscle fibers that are prone to cause fatigue within very short time. But chain grapplers like Khabib have slow twitch muscle fibers which is the reason Khabib moves comparably slow but he can push force relentlessly. His body works like a crank shaft where he can keep pushing his cardio consistently.
Khabib's agile mentality is one of the reasons he didn't get mind-gamed by McGregor's trash talks. During those press conferences, he was very calm and quiet. He wasn't really paying any attentions to Conor's verbal antics. Our mind is synchronized with our body. Due to stress hormones, mental pains affect on our physique. This is how McGregor has been mind-gaming his opponents all these days. He simply makes his opponents emotional with his offensive words to expose their disabilities. Emotion is a necessary evil that plays a huge role in fighting. Khabib was able of absorbing all of the trash talks that Conor were saying. Khabib grew up from mountains, he was born in Dagestan. In those type of places, people create conflicts between ethnicities, clans, villages and many. The war of Dagestan caused the displacement of more than 32k Dagestani civilians. Khabib grew up from this hard and unimaginably tough environment where surviving a day seems hard. Due to growing up witnessing wars, conflicts, strife and struggle, his mind got hammered and pounded so much that it eventually turned into a rock-hard peremptory stone. These type of hard mentalities don't get emotional so easily. That's why Conor's antics didn't put any single affect on the anatomy of Khabib's mind. But one strong point to mention, Khabib wasn't really swallowing those offensive words from Conor rather he was fueling himself. And that's what caused such a one-sided beat-down by Khabib. The same thing we saw Anderson Silva doing it to Chael Sonnen. Inside the cage, Khabib entirely turned into a menace and Conor was nowhere close to matching Khabib's game-plan.
Both Khabib and Conor McGregor have confidence. But their vectors of getting that confidence is entirely different. Conor gathers his confidence through his trash talks, he strongly believes in his capabilities. On the other hand, Khabib gathers his confidence through his faith towards the almighty. His religion and the harsh condition of Dagestan led him gain an extremely sturdy condition. He never underestimates his opponents but due to having confidence and the capabilities to run the confidence, he easily overwhelms whoever he faces. We saw him trading blows with Al Iaquinta in 3rd and 4th round. Iaquinta has a kickboxing background and Khabib was still able to control the distance with him by his jabs. We saw him trading blows with McGregor as well and he even knocked Conor down with a very fast and precise overhand. Khabib's sky-high confidence and strong mentality help him execute his game-plans with persistence and immaculacy.
Khabib successfully defended his title against McGregor and we saw how nicely he handled Conor's mind-games. He knows when and how to stabilize the rage that comes out of the opponents. Khabib is probably going to fight Tony Ferguson next or maybe he's going to have a super fight George St. Pierre. Whoever he's gonna face, his mind-game is gonna play a big role for him. His calm and collected mind helps him focus on his training and setting up game-plan. This is something that helps him concentrate and makes him even more intimidating. His mind-game and physique synchronizes with a simultaneous progress.That's what helps him control his emotion and execute his game-plan with proper utilization of his skill-set.
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| Khabib is always calm & collected during both fights & press conferences |
Khabib's stamina and strength helps him grind his opponents up by pushing relentless pressure. Due to his unorthodox boxing and overwhelming ground-game, he can control the direction of fights. He knows how and when to change the levels of striking and when the opponent's lower-part of body gets exposed. Khabib works on his Jabs and overhands a lot and that's what insists his opponents to focus on countering or exchanging with Khabib's underrated striking. Whenever an opponent puts his focus on striking and exposes the lower part of his body, Khabib immediately shoots take-downs. He either takes his opponent down with a high volume flexion of hip, or he drags his opponent through the fence to badly damage via elbows and other short range punches to set-up take-downs. Khabib is a chain grappler but he doesn't really have any explosiveness in his body. But he has gained so much power is because of pushing his strength through sheer persistence. Strikers like Conor McGregor have fast twitch muscle fibers that are prone to cause fatigue within very short time. But chain grapplers like Khabib have slow twitch muscle fibers which is the reason Khabib moves comparably slow but he can push force relentlessly. His body works like a crank shaft where he can keep pushing his cardio consistently.
Khabib's agile mentality is one of the reasons he didn't get mind-gamed by McGregor's trash talks. During those press conferences, he was very calm and quiet. He wasn't really paying any attentions to Conor's verbal antics. Our mind is synchronized with our body. Due to stress hormones, mental pains affect on our physique. This is how McGregor has been mind-gaming his opponents all these days. He simply makes his opponents emotional with his offensive words to expose their disabilities. Emotion is a necessary evil that plays a huge role in fighting. Khabib was able of absorbing all of the trash talks that Conor were saying. Khabib grew up from mountains, he was born in Dagestan. In those type of places, people create conflicts between ethnicities, clans, villages and many. The war of Dagestan caused the displacement of more than 32k Dagestani civilians. Khabib grew up from this hard and unimaginably tough environment where surviving a day seems hard. Due to growing up witnessing wars, conflicts, strife and struggle, his mind got hammered and pounded so much that it eventually turned into a rock-hard peremptory stone. These type of hard mentalities don't get emotional so easily. That's why Conor's antics didn't put any single affect on the anatomy of Khabib's mind. But one strong point to mention, Khabib wasn't really swallowing those offensive words from Conor rather he was fueling himself. And that's what caused such a one-sided beat-down by Khabib. The same thing we saw Anderson Silva doing it to Chael Sonnen. Inside the cage, Khabib entirely turned into a menace and Conor was nowhere close to matching Khabib's game-plan.
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| Khabib in rage after defeating McGregor (4th round via submission) |
Both Khabib and Conor McGregor have confidence. But their vectors of getting that confidence is entirely different. Conor gathers his confidence through his trash talks, he strongly believes in his capabilities. On the other hand, Khabib gathers his confidence through his faith towards the almighty. His religion and the harsh condition of Dagestan led him gain an extremely sturdy condition. He never underestimates his opponents but due to having confidence and the capabilities to run the confidence, he easily overwhelms whoever he faces. We saw him trading blows with Al Iaquinta in 3rd and 4th round. Iaquinta has a kickboxing background and Khabib was still able to control the distance with him by his jabs. We saw him trading blows with McGregor as well and he even knocked Conor down with a very fast and precise overhand. Khabib's sky-high confidence and strong mentality help him execute his game-plans with persistence and immaculacy.
Khabib successfully defended his title against McGregor and we saw how nicely he handled Conor's mind-games. He knows when and how to stabilize the rage that comes out of the opponents. Khabib is probably going to fight Tony Ferguson next or maybe he's going to have a super fight George St. Pierre. Whoever he's gonna face, his mind-game is gonna play a big role for him. His calm and collected mind helps him focus on his training and setting up game-plan. This is something that helps him concentrate and makes him even more intimidating. His mind-game and physique synchronizes with a simultaneous progress.That's what helps him control his emotion and execute his game-plan with proper utilization of his skill-set.
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