The Film Room: Khabib Nurmagomedov
UFC 229 is now available on Amazon Prime.
Khabib Nurmagomedov will put his undefeated record on the line Saturday when he takes on Conor McGregor for the lightweight title at UFC 229. Nurmagomedov is one of the greatest grapplers to ever step inside a Ultimate Fighting Championship cage, but standing across from him is one of the best strikers in MMA history, making this a fascinating stylistic matchup.
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Like many Russian children, Khabib started wrestling at an early age. At just 5 years-old he began training under his father, Abdulmanap, who is a legendary Combat Sambo athlete and the coach of the Dagestan National sambo team. We have seen many one-dimensional grapplers touted as complete. Demian Maia has dominated with jiu-jitsu, but lacks from a wrestling standpoint. Brock Lesnar was regarded as a dominant grappler, but his lack of jiu-jitsu was easily exploited in his first UFC fight. What makes Nurmagomedov such an interesting and dominating grappler is his exceptional skills everywhere on the ground. Whether it’s trips, throws, double-leg takedowns or simply dragging his opponent to the mat, he can take anybody down in variety of ways. Although most wrestlers are known for their power takedowns, Khabib is a great exception. Since he has a background in judo, a good majority of his takedowns come from the clinch and rarely does Khabib shoot for a power double or single-legs.
Once the fight hits the ground, Khabib will pass his opponent’s guard like butter and open up with strikes or look for submissions. What makes his grappling transitions so interesting are the unique positions he puts opponents in. He often looks to trap the opponent’s legs between his and trap one of their arms behind their back, like he did against Michael Johnson. With both legs and one arm trapped, the opponent only has one free hand to block with and is generally too flustered to improve position. Khabib also favors the crucifix position on the ground, which traps both of the opponent’s arms while keeping their legs free and puts enough pressure on their chest to make it difficult to buck up and out.
Khabib’s ground-and-pound is relentless and makes opponents look like children going against men. Something interesting about his ground striking is the way he slightly lifts up on his toes to generate more power from the hips. A major concept in Sambo is what is called “floating” above your opponents, which is when the fighter on top leaves a small distance between the opponent, creating a false sense of security. Most of the time Khabib’s opponent will think they have enough room to get back to their feet, but when they try, Khabib is right there again to drag them back to the mat. This not only discourages opponents, but it also allows a small amount of distance between them to generate more power in his ground strikes, knowing he can get them back down if they attempt to escape. The best example of this was his fight with Edson Barboza. Multiple times throughout the fight Khabib completely stood up with one hand on a grounded Barboza to get more power in his punches and anytime Barboza tried to escape, Khabib went right back to the back body lock and dragged him to the mat. Wash, rinse and repeat.
Khabib also has very underrated submissions. Early in his career, Khabib fell in love with this armbar to triangle transition and won three fights in a row with this exact concept. In fact, Khabib has the same amount of submission victories as he does knockouts with eight each. Although he doesn't have much jiu-jitsu experience, sambo and judo put more emphasis on submissions than most think and since his opponents are so focused on his ground-and-pound, submissions can become easier to secure.
Khabib doesn't find himself striking with opponents often, but he has had brief moments of brilliance on the feet, especially with an uppercut. Khabib throws what some call a shovel punch or “hooker-cut,” which is a blow that is halfway between a hook and an uppercut and comes at an odd angle. Early in his career, this hooker-cut was about the only thing he offered on the feet, but as his career has progressed and he’s developed a decent jab that he busted up Al Iaquinta. We know Khabib is nowhere near the level of striking that McGregor is at, but this uppercut along with the threat of his grappling could see him have more success on the feet than expected. Chad Mendes had success against McGregor with a fake level change into an uppercut, which is something Khabib should look for if he struggles to get it to the ground.
Khabib has only been in trouble on the feet once in his career -- against Michael Johnson -- but he does have some very concerning habits that could spell trouble for him against an elite striker like McGregor. Early in his career, Khabib would swing wild and loopy punches that took him out of his stance and almost knocked himself over with momentum. He also routinely walked forward with his hands low while crossing his feet, which is a big no-no in any discipline. He has progressed as a striker and used his skills to get past opponents like Iaquinta, but he is not McGregor and if Khabib swings wild like this it’s almost guaranteed the Irishman will find an opening. Khabib also keeps his lead hand very low against certain fighters like Iaquinta, but did raise his guard against dangerous fighters like Barboza. It would be surprising to see Khabib keep his lead hand low against McGregor, but he has done it in the past. Khabib comes from one of the best gyms in the world in American Kickboxing Academy so I expect his coaches to work with him on staying patient on the feet and keeping defensively responsible, but this is the fight game and if we know anything about this great sport it’s that anything can happen.
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