On October 22 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Makhachev will compete for the vacant lightweight championship against Charles Oliveira. He enters the match on a 10 bout win streak. However, he has drawn criticism for basically piggy backing off of the success of his coach and friend Khabib Nurmagomedov.
According to Javier Mendez, only one guy has ever defeated Khabib Nurmagomedov in training. That person is Islam Makhachev.
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s longtime US based coach Javier Mendez spoke with Submission Radio. Mendez was there to hype up Makhachev and shared some interesting tidbits including that Khabib hasn’t lost a sparring match since 2012. He said that Makhachev is the only person to have ever defeated Khabib in rounds.
Mendez stated:
“In all the history, since 2012, since Khabib’s been doing sparring with me in front of my eyes, there has been nobody that’s ever taken a round from him. No one’s ever won a sparring session. Not a sparring session with Khabib ever. Except one man. Islam.”
“He’s the only one that has won rounds from Khabib. Never won a session, but he’s won rounds. And I’ve never seen that. So, obviously, when Khabib talks about the next heir, he’s not saying something that he’s trying to make up and make people believe. He knows, like I know, how good his Islam is.”
This is somewhat of a surprise considering the twosome is training with former two division champion in the UFC, Daniel Cormier.
Mendez is certain that Makhachev will defeat Oliveira and demonstrate why he is the finest in the world.
Mendez continued: “That’s why he’s so confident in what he’s saying. Khabib’s not known to say something that he doesn’t mean”
“And he means it, I mean it. And now it’s time for Islam to go out there and shine and let everybody know what Khabib already knows and I know, that he’s the best right now. He is the best. And we have to prove it and we will prove it.”