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AKA head coach Javier Mendez has explained why he told Islam Makhachev to implement “father’s plan” against Thiago Moises.
The plan in question, courtesy of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s late father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, is something that has been spoken about a lot by Javier Mendez and members of the AKA gym. It was put into full practice by Khabib during his days at the top of the UFC lightweight division and now, Javier Mendez wants to see Islam Makhachev utilize the same kind of strategy.
During a recent episode of his podcast following Makhachev’s win over Moises, Javier Mendez went into more detail about the plan.
“Moises is one of the better ground guys in the lightweight division, hands down, and he [Makhachev] shut him down. If you can’t appreciate that, I don’t know what can you appreciate about a fighter."
“The plan was to be the matador at first, we wanted to move around and stick and move, stick and move, and I just decided, what the hell. There’s nobody better than these guys on the ground so I said hey, I think we should go father’s plan. I think that’s something all the Dagestani and all my AKA fighters should implement. Without having the control on the ground, then you’re not as good of a fighter as you want to be.”
Javier Mendez - a true mastermind
If there’s anyone outside of Abdulmanap who knows what to say to motivate these fighters, it’s Javier Mendez.
He has played a considerable role in the development of these guys, and if Islam Makhachev is going to make it to the top of the 155-pound division in a similar manner to Khabib, you can bet Javier Mendez is going to be more than happy to lend a helping hand.
Javier Mendez has been at the forefront of so many success stories in the UFC, and we can’t imagine why this would be any different. Sure, Makhachev will have his work cut out for him, given some of the other lightweights at play, but adversity is something he’ll be used to.
