A lot of fuss has been made about Islam Makhachev’s skill.
While Makhachev has yet to face a top ranked opponents he has many people advocating for his grappling skills. Meanwhile Makhachev seems to lack the charisma that his longtime friend and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov has.
With the champion of the division coming from Brazil – with a prominent jiu jitsu background the conversation of Sambo vs BJJ is once again invigorated.
It all started with Nurmagomedov shrugging off Oliveira’s skill and mentioning that Makhachev has submitted ADCC gold medalists heavier than him. A bit of online sleuthing subsequently uncovered Nurmagomedov was talking about Yuri Simoes (most likely).
“Yeah, because I know like we grew up together like all our life, and I see how Islam go go with a lot of ADCC level guys even with ADCC champions – they tap.”
“They tap when when they grapple with Islam. I see 88 kilo 99 kilo 77 kilo – I don’t want to say name but they tap – ADCC world champion, you know, and and it’s gonna be big dream fight versus Charles Oliveira in Brazil, finish them on the ground. ”
But Makhachev has a slightly different takedown game than Nurmagomedov – integrating some judo takedowns. This is why recently posted footage of Makhachev grappling freestyle wrestling Olympic silver medalist is especially interesting.
Makhachev can be seen grappling Mahamedkhabib Kadzimahamedau in the footage. Kadzimahamedau is the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist in men’s 74 kg, 2020 European Champion at 79kg and 2017 Russian National Champion at 70kg.
One of the most notable achievements of Kadzimahamedau is defeating 4x NCAA champion American Kyle Dake in the quarterfinals – via tech fail!