Recent clip of Usman Nurmagomedov “smashing” his opponent went viral as it looks exactly like a sequence Khabib performed during his time active as a mixed martial artist in the UFC.
It looks like Khabib’s cousin Usman Nurmagomedov inherited more than just a sambo skill from Khabib. While Khabib had been competing in MMA since 2008, Usman began his professional career in 2017. Both Khabib and Usman Nurmagomedov trained under Khabib’s late father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
After his father’s passing in 2020, Khabib took his father’s legacy and knowledge and became a trainer himself. Currently, he focuses on training his childhood friend Islam Makhachev, who is now a UFC lightweight champion. But, ‘The Eagle’ also trains a number of old school friends including the new Bellator lighweight champion, Usman Nurmagomedov.
Both Khabib and Usman gained great success in mixed martial arts. Khabib became a UFC lightweight champion in 2018 and defended it three times. He retired with a perdect score consisting of 29 wins and no losses. Later on, Khabib was also inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
Meanwhile, Usman Nurmagomedov competes at rival promotion Bellator MMA. He also competed in the lightweight division and had 5 matches since last year. On his latest outing, he became Bellator lightweight champion after defeating Patricky Pitbull.
Recently, a video emerged on social media showing how similar Khabib and his cousin Usman are. The clip showed both of them doing a ground-on-pound on their respective opponent, which is famously known as “smashing” among MMA fans.
“Khabib and brother Usman smashing opponents the same way.” The video was captioned.
Khabib Nurmagomedov retired in 2020 following the passing of his late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, who was also his coach. He had promised his mother that he will never compete in the octagon again. He is now focused on his promotion Eagle FC and training several Dagestani athletes.
The video of Nurmagomedov is from a particularly questionable stoppage.
In the video, Khabib Nurmagomedov took down Thiago Tavares at UFC on FX: Belfort vs. Bisping. The video demonstrates perfectly why he was renowned for his vicious ground and pound game.
Khabib was climbing the ladder, building a reputation for himself, and methodically defeating everyone. He would put on a display of how to gradually wear out an opponent on the mat in seven consecutive victories before defeating Al Iaquinta to capture the title.
In one of the most dominating runs to a title of all time, Khabib won two of these seven bouts by KO/TKO, four by unanimous decision, and one via submission.
Over all of these specific bouts, the first one against Tavares perhaps takes the prize.
The Eagle was savage, as seen in a recent post on Reddit captioned:
“Seventeen more elbows and I’m gonna have to start thinking of doing something.”
Seventeen more elbows and I’m gonna have to start thinking of doing something
by inufc
In the aforementioned footage, Khabib hits Tavares with 13 consecutive elbows, and the caption essentially criticizes the referee for failing to intervene and wrap up the event sooner than necessary.