#14: Khabib Nurmagomedov
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Undefeated records are a rarity in high level Mixed Martial Arts. While an early loss can derail a career in boxing, veteran MMA fighters are almost expected to have several losses. Given the volatility of MMA, maintaining an undefeated record is nearly impossible. With the sheer diversity of match-ups, a fighter is bound to run into an insurmountable one eventually, and managers often lack the ability to protect their fighters from such match-ups, as power in MMA is tightly centered in the hands of promoters.
The tendency of MMA promoters to smash top fighters against each other like action figures has resulted in many fantastic fighters with spotty records. More often than not, an undefeated record on an MMA fighter indicates that he has not started fighting quality competition.
Khabib Nurmagomedov might just be the exception to the rule. In an 11-year career he has gradually increased the level of his opposition whilst achieving the same results, culminating in a UFC championship in arguably the deepest division in the sport.
But how has Khabib done this and who has he done it against? As this is the general criteria we are holding the 20 greatest mixed martial artists in history to, it’s only fair we look at ‘The Eagle’ with the same slant.
Coming here expecting to see ruminations on Khabib’s out-of-ring relationships with shady characters (to put it lightly) or for us to show solidarity with PETA and slam him for wrestling bears? That has been covered extensively elsewhere.
All we care about at The Fight Site is, well, the fights.
The Eagle
Khabib Nurmagomedov captures the imagination of MMA fans like no other. A seemingly unstoppable force of nature hailing from the mountainous regions of the Caucasus, The lightweight champion is stands at an imposing unbeaten 28-0 and fresh off of a dominant win over interim champion Dustin Poirier, Nurmagomedov looks ready to further cement his legacy with a much anticipated fight with former UFC lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, a fight that has failed to materialize four times prior.
Born in Sildi, Dagestan, Nurmagomedov would have one of the most prodigious combat sports upbringings beginning at the age of eight under his father, renowned trainer Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, and would learn the disciplines of freestyle wrestling, Judo, and Sambo and it was in Makhachkala—the capital of Dagestan—a true epicenter of combat sports worldwide. Nurmagomedov thrived while practicing Sambo and establishing himself as the best in the world winning world titles in 2009 and 2010 at the 74 and 82 KG weight classes.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Khabib’s utter dominance established through a lifetime of training has landed him on our pound for pound list and as time goes on, I expect Nurmagomedov to climb even higher.
While there is valid technical criticism of the structural components of his game, what is most important to understanding Nurmagomedov’s unprecedented dominance is just how functional and efficient it all is and how he uses it to routinely break and dominate the best in the world.
When it’s said that Nurmagomedov is a functionalist, it’s important that we create a working definition for what that means for his game and in the greater context of MMA as a whole. A functionalist is a fighter where the sum is greater than the parts, where what matters more is that the entirety of their game comes together, the quintessential functionalist would be Georges St-Pierre, someone where each component of his game feeds into and complements other aspects of his skill set to create a coherent highly effective whole. Opposite of a functionalist would be a structuralist, someone whose game is not defined so much by the ability of their different skills to work together to form a coherent unified skill-set but more so by the overwhelming strength of one individual skill, one of the most clear structuralists competing today is Edson Barboza, who while having stout defensive wrestling boosted by fantastic athleticism, is clearly a far superior mid-range kickboxer more then anything else and when taken out of this facet of this game he historically falls apart.
Having laid the foundation of structuralism and functionalism in MMA, let’s start to understand Khabib Nurmagomedov’s skill-set. Nurmagomedov is a prototypical functionalist, whose striking be it a jab or an overhand right serve as an entry for his takedowns. Nurmagomedov isn’t an especially quick takedown artist nor for that matter is he particularly adept at setting up and masking his attempts as he gives a hard tell prior to every shot attempt in the form of tensing up.
Even from space, Khabib tends to struggle as his form on his low single sees him finish in compromised position with both knees on the mat and his head down and having failed to finish his low single cleanly he must bring it up to a single on his feet and finish from there or to a bodylock and finish which exerts a great deal of energy. A means by which Khabib closes distance to get to his takedowns used to be in the form of a blitzing flying knee but as opponents have become aware of it, Nurmagomedov has used it sporadically only as they are more fatigued and less able to counter.
Nurmagomedov’s best work is done against the fence where he will get a head inside single and step in and with his head up and hips in, lift, and return his opponent to the mat where he begins a punishing ride. Nurmagomedov also does exceptional work off of bodylocks, being able to trip finish off of them but also showing he is more than capable more impressive maneuvers like a back arch. This was on full display in his record breaking 21-takedown performance against Abel Trujillo.
Nurmagomedov also has displayed a stunning Uchi Mata in the past against the cage in his 2014 fight against a future UFC lightweight champion in Rafael dos Anjos. Nurmagomedov’s double leg is an incredibly effective tool he utilizes when pressuring against the cage and it’s one of the many weapons he used in his last fight to pressure and absolutely break interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier.
The Foundation of a Great Resume
None of this matters unless it’s against fighters that matter. Khabib has generally smashed everyone he’s faced with his suffocating pressure-based wrestling game and constant crash of bone crunching ground n’ pound. The fight with Poirier told us a lot about just how difficult he is to fight, and as alluded to earlier a fight with Tony Ferguson might just rubber stamp his greatness for all times.
Khabib has become much more well known and highly regarded in the last few years due to his high-profile title fights (and the furor surrounding them) but some MMA fans might not be aware of the solid work he did before he started headlining pay-per-views.
For some of Khabib’s UFC tenure he’s been treading water, but despite his combat experience starting at a young age we have seen him grow in the Octagon, and quite frankly (weight misses, injuries and suspensions aside which caused inactivity) he has brought along in a steady fashion and passed all tests thrown his way.
One knock on Khabib you do hear from time-to-time is that he might not have deserved the decision against Gleison Tibau. The muscular Brazilian stifled Khabib’s takedown attempts for the entirety of their 3-round bout, and Khabib was reduced to wild windmillin’, which displayed the aggression we would come to know as typical of his style but at the time made him look desperate.
We are of the opinion that although Tibau stifled Khabib, he mounted little in the way of notable aggression himself. It’s a messy fight that doesn't cry out for frequent reviewing, and thus should be chalked up as an early learning fight and not have an asterisk next to it when you peruse Khabib’s record.
Later on in his career Khabib received similar criticism when Al Iaquinta survived a 5-round fight with him (on late notice) and achieved just that. To hear some fight critics, Khabib was ‘exposed’, yet Iaquinta fought like an experienced journeyman. Even elite fighters can sometimes struggle when a man comes only to survive.
Others have survived despite of their best efforts to achieve much more. Perhaps Rafael dos Anjos was not quite at the peak of his powers when he was largely grounded and battered, but he was also less than a year away from reaching the top of the mountain in a performance for the ages, routing Anthony Pettis and winning UFC gold. None of that brilliance was on display against Khabib, who looked like a hot prospect. When RDA won the title, Khabib was suddenly more than just someone to watch out for, he was the coming man.
Edson Barboza has always been more flash than substance certainly, with clear stylistic deficiencies as aforementioned. Khabib exposed those deficiencies, his patented style leaving Barboza’s face like a Tom Savini job. But Khabib also showed reactive defense on the feet, ducking under the Brazilian’s spinning kicks and shrugging off the minimal offence he managed to get off.
And this is the thing: Khabib has faced enough adversity in his career that we cannot chalk up his glittering undefeated record to intelligent matchmaking.
Michael Johnson has always been a hot-and-cold fighter but he has always shown flashes of talent as well. Prior to fighting Khabib he destroyed Dustin Poirier inside of a round, displaying precision and excellent timing. Poirier would not lose for three years, going on an incredible run in MMA’s best division, beating arguably the greatest lightweight of all time, arguably the scariest lightweight in the division, and an all-time great featherweight who was at that point well in the argument for being the pound-for-pound number one in the sport. Michael Johnson dismissed Poirier in a way that if you’d asked anyone at the time if he could go on the historic run he did they would have said you were insane.
Johnson started off against Khabib much as he did against Poirier, stinging him early with his quick raids. Khabib showed testicular fortitude and chewed Johnson up.
Yet it was felt a sharper southpaw might be able to do even more damage. A sharp southpaw boasting perhaps the greatest hands in MMA history, the greatest single knockout in MMA history, and who had strapped two belts around his waist without ever losing them in the cage.
McGregor
It was a clash of styles both inside and outside of the cage, the fight Zuffa marketed as the biggest fight in UFC history. It’s not an outlandish claim: the styles clash, the bus brawl, the huge fanbase for both fighters and McGregor being the biggest draw in the sport made for a tantalising clash. Every great fighter needs a defining fight. For Khabib, his defining fight was always going to be against Conor McGregor.
It wasn’t through lack of trying though: Khabib was meant to fight another of the great 155lbers for the belt in McGregor’s absence from the sport (more on that later) and when Tony Ferguson got injured the UFC pulled an intriguing replacement out of its ass, giving ‘Blessed’ Max Holloway—the best 145lber in the world—the chance to fight Khabib on a weeks notice.
Both fights would have done wonders for Khabib’s standing had he won. Holloway was pulled out due to unsafe weight-cutting the day before the fight, and uninspiring Al Iaquinta was subbed in. This did little to bolster Khabib’s standing, and his claim of the lightweight championship felt hollow in the aftermath.
Enter Conor McGregor.
‘Number one chicken’ might have been how the Dagestan native described the emeritus lightweight champion, but make no bones about it the Irishman was among the pound-for-pound elite going into the match.
You all know the story: Conor McGregor came into the UFC riding a wave of hype, a two-weight Cage Warriors champion, and rose quickly through the ranks of the big leagues. A knockout over the greatest 145lber of all time Jose Aldo proved once and for all that McGregor wasn’t just hype, two epic wars with Nate Diaz proved that McGregor could come back a better fighter from a defeat, and a two-round shellacking over Eddie Alvarez—a lightweight so great that members of The Fight Site staff consider him the division’s greatest—showed that ‘The Notorious’ had legitimate power wherever he fought.
Two belts, only one loss in the Octagon, and undeniably the most transcendent star to every compete in mixed martial arts.
So transcendent in fact that McGregor hadn’t even stepped inside the Octagon in nigh on two years. He had not competed for over year, his last contest a far better than expected foray into the world of professional boxing. The opponent—as if you needed reminding—was McGregor’s equivalent: pound-for-pound superstar and multi-weight champion Floyd Mayweather.
McGregor lost (no surprise) but surprised some boxing pundits by his spirited display, well beaten technically but finished off by fatigue as much as ‘Money’ Mayweather’s precise punches.
Khabib of course would take a different approach to McGregor, although early signs were encouraging for McGregor. He took the with tactical approach, immediately pushing Khabib back and flicking out punches to disguise kicks, and half-landed his patented left hand. Khabib shot in on a single leg from a distance away and McGregor fought him off for much of the round. A tiring sequence no doubt, but after five minutes McGregor had sustained less damage than the likes of Edson Barboza and Rafael dos Anjos had at least.
The Fight Site’s own Ed Gallo wrote about the grappling exchanges in the first round extensively for Bloody Elbow in ‘Wrestling for MMA: UFC 242’s Khabib Nurmagomedov’:
‘McGregor locked through the waist and essentially just held, keeping his free leg as far away as possible, intermittently looking to elbow on the outside. McGregor’s chief concern should have been to survive these positions and separate, taking away an arm to strike was a huge risk.
But it paid off in this instance, Nurmagomedov reached to trap the elbowing arm, only holding the single with one arm, allowing McGregor to start to draw his leg back.
As Nurmagomedov built back up and postured, McGregor used his near arm to push down on the head, and the far arm to pull the knee, weakening the base as Nurmagomedov looked to stand.
It worked like a charm, Nurmagomedov’s back was completely round, his head was down, and his base was narrow.’
You can read the whole article here and we recommend it highly: as a thorough examination of Khabib’s wrestling technique it is the perfect companion to this article.
Ed again:
‘In two sequences, McGregor could not identify which defensive wrestling tactics to use, and that’s what lost him the exchange. He showed flashes of both necessary approaches, but did not apply them in the correct moments.’
Not a perfect first round for McGregor then, but not a disaster.
Then, the second round, or if you like, the round Khabib became a star. Or perhaps, McGregor’s disaster.
Whilst Khabib had not managed to score much in the way of damaging offence in the first stanza, the threat of his takedowns still loomed over the fight like a black cloud on an outdoor wedding. A shrug of the shoulders was all it took to open up McGregor’s defence, the threatened level change a decoy for a booming overhand right upstairs.
McGregor was sent sprawling to the canvas, but quickly regrouped, spinning Khabib back to the cage and firing a knee at him. McGregor fought fire with fire, barely missing with his fight-ending left cross. Barely missing can be the difference between victory and defeat, and now McGregor had more things to worry about than that pressuring ground game.
Because of that, the ground game came into play.
McGregor was grounded, and hellaciously pounded, his all-time great beard the only thing between a devastating knockout. Khabib worked the guard like an all-time great inside fighter in boxing, smacking the body then the head, not giving his opponent any time to breathe whilst giving himself room to operate. Dominick Cruz tried to over analyse the scene, hypothesising that McGregor was trying to tire Khabib out.
Joe Rogan put it simply: Khabib was trying to punch McGregor’s face in.
Khabib might have over exerted himself trying to finish the fight in the second, and had to withstand a brave rally from a now grotesque looking McGregor in the third. Khabib had to show his guts, his chin, and his ability to bounce back, standing in McGregor’s preferred range seemingly out of necessity and a set of lungs that were refusing to play ball.
McGregor’s best chance perhaps. In the fourth, Khabib came out like the previous round had never happened, taking McGregor down and squeezing his jaw like Dan Hodge used to squeeze apples. McGregor tapped, and then the real carnage ensued.
The cage side brawl that followed one of the most absorbing title fights in UFC history has arguably surpassed the bout itself for infamy. However it isn’t pertinent here.
The Greatest 155lber of All Time?
If you have stayed up-to-date with our series on the 20 greatest mixed martial artists of all time thus far, you will know that we drafted our individual lists before Khabib Nurmagomedov faced off with interim champ Dustin Poirier at UFC 242. It goes without saying that the decisive victory for the now undisputed 155lb champ boosted his legacy further, and a subsequent revision of our list would likely see Khabib rise on many (and thus rise here in the consensus list)
It begs the question: is Khabib the greatest of all-time in the greatest division of all-time?
The list of top names on Khabib’s resume is small but features true luminaries: Rafael dos Anjos, future champ, and surely one of the five greatest lightweights of all time. Conor McGregor, two-weight champ, and arguably a top five pound-for-pound fighter of all time who had never lost in a title fight. And Dustin Poirier, on an insane run against uber-talented fighters, who possessed a sneaky submission game and some of the best hands ever seen in the cage.
All of them, chewed up and spat out.
The secondary list of wins on Khabib’s resume are not all that impressive, coming against fighters that the majority of top-notch 155lbers would (and have) beat, but they’re not an untalented bunch either: Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, Al Iaquinta, Abel Trujillo, Pat Healy and Shahbulat Shamhalaev (future featherweight contender) went the same way as elite fighters did. They add depth to Khabib’s resume, but without those three big wins it’s unlikely Khabib would be moving the needle as a serious contender in MMA’s deepest weightless, let alone inspiring talk of being the G.O.A.T.
What his resume does prove is that Khabib is one of the best fighters of all time at forcing his fight on his opponent whoever that man may be. Gone are the days when Gleison Tibau managed to stifle his offence. Khabib Nurmagomedov may be one dimensional but it’s a helluva dimension and he has improved his all-round game to the point that while he’s probably never going to surprise us with a clinical striking display, he is smart enough to use all aspects of MMA to further his ability to utilise his strengths.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is consistent, and consistently brutal. The greatest fighter in arguably the greatest division in MMA’s short history is good for his spot here, and as said above could be good for a spot much higher.
Put simply by Bloody Elbow’s Mookie Alexander:
‘Khabib Nurmagomedov is really good at what he does.’