Javier Mendez thinks Khabib Nurmagomedov could go down as the greatest coach of all time.
After Nurmagomedov retired following his submission win over Justin Gaethje to defend his lightweight title, he turned his attention to coaching. He began coaching the likes of Islam Makhachev, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Usman Nurmagomedov among others and has had a ton of success.
As Makhachev is set to fight for the UFC’s lightweight title at UFC 280 and Usman Nurmagomedov is set to fight for the Bellator lightweight strap, Mendez thinks that shows just how good of a coach Nurmagomedov is.
“He’s been coaching forever. Even when he was fighting, he was coaching. He’d be sparring through these five rounds and all of a sudden he’d be sitting there with us coaching the guys,” Mendez said on the UFC unfiltered podcast about Nurmagomedov. “He’s been doing that forever. His father had trained him from such a young age to take the responsibility over, as a fighter, as a coach, and he’s taking over his father’s footsteps. He’s learned from me, he’s learned from his father, mostly his father. But to me, he’s on track, in my opinion, because of his age, what he’s doing, the camp I see, the fighters he has, he’s on track to being the greatest coach of all time, in my opinion. I see it. I see the writing on the wall.”
At UFC 280 alone, Khabib Nurmagomedov will be in the corner of Makhachev, Belal Muhammad, and Zubaira Tukhugov.
If Makhachev wins the belt, it would add to Nurmagomedov’s legacy as a coach. Yet, in order to be talked about as the greatest, Nurmagomedov will need a lot of his pupils to become world champions and holds the titles for a lengthy time, but as Mendez says, he’s on his way to being it.
Do you agree with Javier Mendez that Khabib Nurmagomedov is on his way to being the greatest coach of all time?
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
