Legendary former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov looks to have caused quite the stir with his recent suggestion of Dagestani dominance in mixed martial arts.
Khabib is currently gearing up for a busy month as a coach. In addition to having two assignments next weekend at UFC 311, where both Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov will compete with gold on the line, a trip to Dubai the following week awaits the team.
Bellator champ Usman Nurmagomedov will kick off his year on Jan. 25, headlining the PFL's Champions Series event at the Coca-Cola Arena. The Dagestani will be defending his title opposite Ireland's Paul Hughes — a familiar regional rivalry for MMA fans who weren't living under a rock in 2018.
Amid comparisons to Khabib vs. Conor McGregor, "The Eagle" has been touting his homeland's dominance and superiority in the cage. And more than just bettering Ireland, the ex-UFC star believes a Dagestani group would handily defeat a team of fighters from around the world.
During a recent podcast episode uploaded to his Thiccc Boy YouTube channel, former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub reacted to those remarks, explaining one aspect of the debate he believes Khabib omitted.
Dagestan is nothing else; all they do is focus on combat sports, nothing else," Schaub said. "Wrestling, sambo — that's their entire focus over there. They play nothing else. So, since kids, that's the goal.
Do you realize what would happen if the talent in America or Ireland — but in this case, America, where I'm from — decided to focus at a mass scale on MMA?" Schaub continued. "It would be the dream team versus everybody else. There would be no competition. Dagestan never had a single athlete ever that could compete in any major sport.
For now, Khabib will be looking to help three members of his team support his claims of Dagestani superiority this month when Makhachev meets Armenia's Arman Tsarukyan, Umar Nurmagomedov collides with Georgia's Merab Dvalishvili, and Usman Nurmagomedov battles Ireland's Hughes.