Khabib Nurmagomedov has shown his comedic side in the build-up to UFC 311.
UFC 311 features two of Nurmagomedov’s teammates, Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov, both in championship fights. Although ‘The Eagle’ admits cornering his fighters stresses him out, he isn’t letting that stop him from being jovial with UFC staff during fight week.
This is evidenced by his hilarious encounter with a UFC employee holding a PR championship belt behind the scenes at the UFC 311 fight week.
Khabib Nurmagomedov presses UFC employee carrying UFC 311 championship belt
In a video on January 16, Nurmagomedov jokingly pressed a UFC employee holding a championship belt.
“Brother, this is UFC belt?” Nurmagomedov caught the employee by surprise. “You ready to defend this title?”
“It’s the PR belt,” The employee smiled.
Nurmagomedov jested, “It doesn’t matter. When you have UFC belt, you have to protect this.”
“Anytime, anywhere,” The employee joined in on the joke. They both laughed.
It’s nice to see this side of ‘The Eagle’ after Nurmagomedov was kicked off a Frontier Airlines flight earlier this month. The former lightweight champion made headlines, with Michael Chandler branding the incident as discrimination and Conor McGregor poking fun at Nurmagomedov on Instagram.
Fortunately, Nurmagomedov is known for being pragmatic, as shown in his brutal training methods.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s brutal training to prepare UFC champions
PFL’s Ibragim Ibragimov told Bloody Elbow about Nurmagomedov’s brutal training sessions. These consist of shark tank-style workouts in which one athlete takes on five fresh fighters in a row, one minute each. After five minutes, the fighters get a minute’s rest before they swap roles.
It’s very reminiscent of the work at City Kickboxing in New Zealand, where former champions Israel Adesanya and Alexander Volkanovski sharpen their tools.