Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin wants to add a Bellator title to the family trophy cabinet. Nurmagomedov will face Patricky Pitbull for the Bellator lightweight strap at UFC 288 this Friday night, and discussed how he will dedicate this fight to his uncle, Abdulmanap, with MMAFighting.
“For me [this fight], it’s all the hopes and dreams my uncle has put into me. I just don’t want to let him down. I want to take this belt, inshallah, and it put in our school of Abdulmanap.”
Usman Nurmagomedov Will Add Bellator Title to Family Trophy Cabinet
Abdulmanap, coach to Khabib, Usman, and freshly minted UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, passed away in 2020. The death of his father led Khabib Nurmagomedov to retire from competition and take up the mantle of coach. Usman had nothing but positive affirmation for his cousin’s coaching acumen.
“Khabib is a clear copy of his father as a coach. There’s some little things that are missing from his dad but he pushes us very hard for training. He mentally helps us. He energizes us. But I think that Khabib is a copy of his father as a coach.”
Usman Nurmagomedov spars with the UFC lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, regularly, something he believes has prepared him very well for his upcoming title bout.
“Having Islam as a sparring partner, we had sparring in Dubai, we have camps with Islam together. Islam is very good. He took me to the waters that I haven’t been to before. I feel like Pitbull can’t match that.
The only thing that Pitbull can do is possibly is try to drop me with a strike but I don’t think he’s going to wrestle with me for all five rounds. I don’t think he’s going to come to me and fight.”
Nurmagomedov continued, praising his sparring partner as thoroughly deserving of UFC gold. “Honestly, I was very happy when I saw him take that title. I was very joyful. It was all the plan of our uncle come to life. I had feelings of happiness and I had feelings that I’m supposed to be the next guy to make our team happy.
But Islam has deserved this for a while now. He just had a lot of people running from him but now all the focus is on him as a champion and he will fight any contender. He will not shy away from any contender because he’s never done that.”
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