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Chael Sonnen appears to have taken a jibe at sambo and at one of the sport’s most well-known representatives, Khabib Nurmagomedov. In an edition of Beyond the Fight, Sonnen, who himself was a widely-revered grappler during his MMA career, downplayed the significance of sambo as a martial art.
Sambo is a Russian martial art that’s believed to have originated in the 1920s during the Soviet era. It primarily focuses on grappling techniques. However, combat sambo permits the utilization of strikes as well.
Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA), who hails from Dagestan, Russia, has a background in sambo. The retired UFC star is widely regarded as one of the greatest grapplers to have ever competed in MMA.
Regardless, while Sonnen has time and time again lauded Nurmagomedov for his grappling and overall MMA skills, he’s now taken a shot at ‘The Eagle’s’ sambo background.
Sonnen indicated that Nurmagomedov’s training partner and fellow sambo veteran Islam Makhachev is likely to fight Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wizard Charles Oliveira for the vacant UFC lightweight title next. Highlighting this clash between high-level sambo and high-level jiu-jitsu in the MMA realm, Sonnen stated:
“For me, that’s interesting. And I do know that the jiu-jitsu community, as a community, has been very scared to do that. I don’t know why. I think jiu-jitsu wins. I don’t think sambo’s real. I never have."
'The American Gangster' further added:
"I think there’s a reason that you can’t get a scholarship in sambo. I think there’s a reason if you go and attend an Olympic games, they’re not going to have a sambo village. I don’t think it’s very real. But we’ve got a part of the world, headlined by Khabib and a whole bunch of bada**es out of Dagestan that say that I’m wrong.”
Watch Chael Sonnen express his views regarding sambo in the video below:
Josh Thomson on Khabib Nurmagomedov’s sambo career before joining the UFC
In an appearance on The Weighing In podcast last year, former MMA referee John McCarthy noted that Khabib Nurmagomedov has suffered just one loss in his sambo career.
Meanwhile, former UFC lightweight Josh Thomson revealed that 'The Eagle' competed in about 250 sambo fights before joining the UFC.
Highlighting how the wear and tear from his sambo fights contributed to Nurmagomedov’s early retirement from MMA, Thomson said:
"When I had interviewed him before and talked to him before, [Nurmagomedov told me] he had 250 sambo fights before he even got into the UFC… We were having these conversations about him and he's fought guys and maybe they aren't all elite-level but 250 is a lot. And we're talking about sambo, which is very similar to what MMA is.”
Watch the full video below:
