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AKA head coach Javier Mendez has claimed that Khabib Nurmagomedov's striking skills improved because he got tired of being outclassed by Islam Makhachev in training.
According to Mendez, Nurmagomedov bettered his stand-up game after being constantly beaten up on the feet by his fellow Dagestani.
In a recent appearance on the Real Quick with Mike Swick podcast, Mendez revealed that Islam Makhachev was so good in training, he'd give Nurmagomedov a run for his money. Makhachev apparently even forced the undefeated former champion to adjust and improve his game in order to meet the rising lightweight's level.
Mendez also said that Khabib Nurmagomedov got better at using knee strikes in fights because he took a lot of shots from Islam Makhachev during training and worked on countering them with some of his own.
"Khabib got better at knees because he got tired of Islam beating the cr*p out of him. Islam beat the crap out of him so next thing you know, Khabib's like 'I've even got knee pads' because I wouldn't allow these guys to throw knees if they don't have knee pads so I've been getting his knee pads because Islam is beating the cra*p out of him. So that's how the progression came. That's how good Islam was. So he was able to adapt and learn from other people [while] Khabib was more loyal [to Mendez as his striking coach]." said Javier Mendez.
Javier Mendez explains why Islam Makhachev is a much better striker than Khabib Nurmagomedov
Javier Mendez thinks that Khabib Nurmagomedov shouldn't have been so rigid in his loyalty towards him as his striking coach, unlike Islam Makhachev.
Having trained with as many good striking coaches as he possibly could, Makhachev improved his stand-up game at a much quicker pace than Nurmagomedov, claims Mendez.
"He seemed to pick up on the striking more than Khabib and working with different people, not just me. He was open to the idea of working with different people so his progression and stand-up went higher than Khabib's because Khabib was only loyal to me as his striking coach and his father as the other coach. Since his father was not a striking expert, he didn't strike at home with anybody." said Mendez.
Catch Javier Mendez's appearance on the Real Quick with Mike Swick podcast below:
