Khabib Nurmagomedov will bring his unique and gruelling training style to even more gyms as he expands and grows his father’s legacy.
The UFC legend’s dad Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov was a renowned coach in Dagestan, overseeing the early careers of multiple world champions including Islam Makhachev and Usman Nurmagomedov. Now, he has plans to bring that training and lifestyle plan to more locations, according to a teammate.
Helping him in this venture is PFL featherweight contender Movlid Khaybulaev, who is an undefeated contender in this year’s World Tournament. He takes on Taekyun Kim in the main card opener tonight on ESPN (or DAZN in the UK)
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Khabib Nurmagomedov plans to expand gym in effort to preserve his father’s legacy
After retiring in 2020 as a result of his father’s passing, Khabib Nurmagomedov has moved into a coaching role. He has already cornered a number of world title bouts across UFC, PFL and Bellator, winning almost all of them.
Now, he has plans to further expand his father’s empire by bringing his gym, and the unique training style that is undertaken there, to further locations.
“It’s all about expansion and preserving our legacy and we’re all about branching out right now,” Khaybulaev told Bloody Elbow ahead of his PFL semi-final bout with Taekyun Kim tonight in Nashville. “We have a bunch of new guys coming out.
“I’ll work with somebody then of course Khabib is working with a lot of guys. He oversees everybody and if we keep going with the same energy and the same dedication then it’s just going to keep spreading out even further.
“Khabib is making sure we get new talent and we’re going to be opening up new gym branches. So the idea is to leave an even bigger legacy and keep the chain going.”
Movlid Khaybulaev recalls Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s greatest trait
The legendary coaching of Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov is regularly referenced by the many world class MMA fighters who have emerged from Dagestan. Khaybulaev recalls that it wasn’t necessarily his knowledge of tactics that made him so great, but his work outside of it in their personal lives.
“The best thing about Abdulmanap was that he wasn’t just an MMA coach to us, he was a mentor,” Khaybulaev continued. “He was trying to raise us as proper men and proper human beings who are passionate.
“We always treated everybody nicely, he didn’t favor anybody specifically he treated us all as his students and that was the best thing that he was trying to put moral qualities on us and that was the best thing I can remember about him.”