This might have come as a shocker for most of the UFC fans around the world, but the “ Eagle “ has taken over the UFC arena once again. Khabib Nurmagomedev has successfully defended his UFC championship belt over the former UFC champion Conor McGregor at the UFC PPV event on October 2018 at the Las Vegas, Nevada and once again, he has proved why he is still the best MMA fighter around the UFC arena.
Although Khbabib has received all kinds of criticism over the context of his attack on McGregor’s trainer, but rarely anyone knew that it was just the payback that Conor’s trainer received for his “Inappropriate “ comments on Khabib earlier before the match. So what is that which makes the “Eagle”, the best MMA fighter in the world? Let’s take a look at his journey so far in the UFC world.
The Inception of the “Eagle” in the Battlegrounds of the Russian Territory
People may like him or not, Khabib has been a fighter ever since he came into this world. His birth place, Dagestan, is a Russian Republic and has witnessed hundreds of battles and wars in the past years due to the Disputes between the Russian authorities and the locals over the latter’s decision of getting separated from the Russian Domination after Russia took over the territory in 2018 after Dagestan government got dissolved due to the corruption investigation. Ever since past 20 years, the country has witnessed hundreds of death in the Guerilla wars and we can surely assumed the type of Trauma Khabib has gone through all these years.
Not many people know but this beats got trained by his own father from an age of six and he generally indulged in getting trained for Judo and Wrestling which was one of the childhood favorites for many around there. Moreover, there is also a video of him fighting with a bear, getting surfaced across the various social media platforms.
The Journey of Khabib started from the combat sambo and he went on pursue his dreams in the famous world of MMA( Mixed martial Arts).This famous fighter around the locals in Russia secured an unbelievable 16-0 score of victories in the regional circuits of Russia and Ukraine in the early years and something which also landed him into the limelight with the UFC.
Khabib’s Journey as an MMA Fighter
Khabib made his professional MMA debut in September 2008 and surprised everyone while securing 4 wins within a period of five months. His unbelievable records saw him staying undefeated for the next three years and knocked out 11 out of his 12 opponents in the process.
He further went on to sign a six fight deal with the Ultimate fighting championships’ lightweight division in the year 2011 and secure his first championship as a UFC lightweight champion in April 2018 after defeating Al laquinta at the famous UFC 223 PPV.
Some Interesting facts about Khabib Nurmagomedev
Entry into the combat sport at an early age
Khabin got into the combat sport at an early age of six years under the supervision of his own father who was also a famous coach and former combat sambo title holder. Moreover, his wrestling skills can be ascertained by seeing one of his trending videos which saw him fighting with a bear cub just at an age of nine years.
Right at the age of 13 years, he along his family moved on to the Dagestan capital Makhachkala from his native place at the countryside. From there he started to participate in daily combat sport practice and started his journey in the combat sports.
Current holding the longest reigning undefeated streak in MMA
Quite unbelievably, khabib has won the all of his 26 professional fights at a current age of 30 years. All of these victories includes 8 submission victories,8 knockout victories, and the rest of the 10 as an Unanimous decision. Moreover, his first 16 victories came over while he was fighting in the Welterweight category instead rather than his current Lightweight category.
Trained with a number of teams during his career
Khabib has quite an early entry into the combat sports world and has trained with a number of teams in the process at different locations. While getting trained by his father in his childhood days, he also got supervised by famous Judo coach, Jafar Jafarov at his Judo school.
Over the past 10 years into his career, he has trained in Dagestan’s SC Bazarganova, Bahrain’s KHK MMA Team and St. Petersburg’s Mamishev Fight Team and Fight Spirit Team. Currently, he can be seen training at one of the teams at the Gadzhi Makhachev Freestyle Wrestling Club, American Kickboxing Academy and quite frequently with his own team, Eagles MMA Team in Moscow, which he established himself in 2016.
Big list of Combat Sambo Titles
One of the big achievements of Khabin during his MMA career is a Gold medal at the Russian Combat Sambo championship (74 kg category). Moreover, he added two more World championships in 2009 and 2010 in 74kg and 82 kg category.
Beside the Combat sambo championships that he won, he secured some of the famous victories at various grappling based tournaments.
Why Khabib can be quoted as the best MMA fighter ever?
Khabib has defeated former UFC champion Conor McGregor in the recently concluded UFC 229 PPV but there is more to his legacy as one of the best MMA fighters this world has ever seen in the UFC arena. Even according to the legend Joe Rogan. “Nobody does Ground and pound better than Khabib Nurmagomedev” and has further received huge accolades during his illustrious career of 10 years so far.
Moreover, as per his father and current coach as well, there’s no one which can break the spirit of Khabib as of now and he is been deemed as to be carrying the highest levels of Mental strength into the UFC arena. And quite reasonably, UFC is 90% about the mental strength and only 10 % about the skills.
He is undefeated as of now in his 26 fights and seems like getting scared out of no one till now in his career and if he carries upon the same levels of strength and skills on both mental and physical levels, there is no doubt to the fact that he will end up being the best ever MMA fighter this world has ever seen.
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