Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the greatest to ever do it, having retired with an undefeated record of 29-0.
There have been many great UFC champions, but we might never see someone that was as dominant as ‘The Eagle’, who rarely lost rounds during his incredible lightweight run.
Nurmagomedov’s coach, Javier Mendez, has been in the corner of several remarkable champions as a coach to the likes of Islam Makhachev, Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold.
He believes that one of the things that separates the former 155 pound champion from the others is his composure which saw him never stray from the task at hand.
That being said, Mendez recently told the story of the one time that he saw Nurmagomedov lose his cool in the gym following an encounter with a training partner.
Javier Mendez couldn’t calm Khabib Nurmagomedov down following training altercation with a kickboxer
During his recent appearance on Tim Welch’s Red Hawk Recap podcast, Javier Mendez spoke about the one time that he can remember seeing Khabib Nurmagomedov’s emotions get the better of him in the gym.
The AKA coach said that both Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov are somewhat similar in that they don’t get emotional at any point, but ‘The Eagle’ was always mentally the strongest.
However, a training partner ended up testing that as Mendez reflected on the time where the lightweight champion was working alongside an experienced kickboxer that Daniel Cormier had brought into the gym.
It all kicked off between them after Nurmagomedov was kicked by his training partner, with the undefeated star having only one thing on his mind in the immediate aftermath.
“I guess he was working in one of the rooms with Khabib and he was trying to show Khabib a certain technique. Next thing you know, I guess he kicked Khabib full in the face when Khabib was just standing there waiting for the guy to show him.
“Next thing you know, they’re coming and telling me, ‘Jav come, please come, Khabib’s gonna kill so and so’. So I’m going out there and Khabib’s running after this guy, saying like, ‘Come here, come here’.
“Khabib had blood in his eyes. It’s just one of those situations where I couldn’t have calmed them down. That’s the first time ever that I seen that side of him come out.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s emotions boiled over in the chaotic ending of his heated clash with Conor McGregor
The composure that Javier Mendez speaks about is something that any fight fan will have seen in Khabib Nurmagomedov’s previous fights.
His win over Michael Johnson at UFC 205 is a great example of this with Nurmagomedov calmly talking to his opponent as he continues to maul him.
Though fans didn’t see his heated encounter with a training partner, a lot of people tuned in to UFC 229 where ‘The Eagle’ faced Conor McGregor in the biggest fight in UFC history.
The lightweight champion brawled with McGregor’s team after the fight in arguably the most chaotic ending to an event that we have ever seen.