(Video) Islam Makhachev doing a camp on Mount Everest in light of Khabib’s retirement from MMA

Ahead of his main event against Alexander Volkanovski, Islam Makhachev has been determined to take his training conditions into the extreme surroundings.

Islam recently posted a video of his intense preparation on Mount Everest.

One of the cheeky captions he shared was:
“What is the weather in Australia? Who cares!”

Another one details that the objective is to improve cardio to go five rounds.
“Need to stock up on oxygen for 5 rounds”

Makhachev has never gone 5 rounds in his career and had never even come close to the top of the division prior to booking against former Lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.

Islam Makhachev is a really massive lightweight and Luke Rockhold even remarked on Makhachev’s social media that he looks more like a middleweight nowadays.

The video showed Makhachev jumping straight into an ice-cold lake. After an ice bath, Islam went ahead and laid directly in the snow. He then entered a sauna for the rest of his routine.

There might be a strategy to Makhechev’s choice of surroundings.

Perth is at 0m of elevation and as such it won’t be as challenging as Abu Dhabi for neither him nor Volkanovski. Athletes commonly do camps at an elevation to improve their cardio.

Makhachev’s coach Javier Mendez recently shared that while he’s confident in Makhachev’s victory he thinks the bout will likely go the distance.

Javier Mendez said this in a recent interview with Helen Yee:

“I expect at the end of the day Islam Makhachev is going to be pound-for-pound the best fighter in the UFC or in the world actually.”

“Pound-and-pound, after he beats Alex (Alexander Volkanovski) which I’m expecting him to do but not like people, are thinking, like any kind of finish I don’t like that. It’s gonna be a five round war.”

“In my opinion, there is no one in the lightweight division that’s going to beat Islam (Makhachev) outside of what anybody can, you know, anybody can win but on the decision, not one’s going to beat him.”

UFC 285 might mark the first time Makhachev doesn’t have the support of Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner. Nurmagomedov outlined his decision to withdraw from the sport of MMA entirely yesterday. 

The initial reports were corroborated when Nurmagomedov shared the news reporting them to his instagram stories.