Khabib Nurmagomedov's coach Javier Mendez thinks highly of Ilia Topuria's MMA skill set; however, the AKA head honcho believes there are deficiencies in the lightweight champion's game that could be exploited.During a recent appearance on the Know Time podcast, Mendez who have led numerous fighters to UFC championship glory, offered an in depth look at how he'd devise game plans against some of the greats of the sport.When Topuria's name came up, the 55-year-old was quick to acknowledge his mesmerizing boxing ability, and advised any fighter facing the lightweight champion to stay out of punching range.However, Mendez is convinced that Topuria is still far from a complete striker, and that the Georgian-born Spaniard's grappling needs to be tested to determine just how good it actually is. Speaking on the podcast segment he said:"Ilia Topuria, I would say with him, stay out of boxing range one million percent stay out of boxing range. He's got the best boxing in the business in MMA. He's got it so much that he even thinks he can be [Terence] Crawford. You'd need to work your kicks angles with him, knees, Muay Thai would be some a good specialty."Mendez added:"He's got decent wrestling. From people I've spoken to that have trained with him, he's got this decent jiu-jitsu also. So, he's almost the complete package, but he's not. He lacks the kicking area. So, the weakest link on him would be the kicking area. And then you have to test your grappling with him to see if your if yours is better than his. We've yet to see how great it is. It's not great."Check out Javier Mendez's comments below:Javier Mendez's coach labels Khabib Nurmagomedov's father one of the "greatest trainers of all time"Javier Mendez played a key role in leading the Dagestani revolution in MMA, beginning with Khabib Nurmagomedov's dominant UFC run and the legacy continuing with Islam Makhachev.Nevertheless, The veteran coach acknowledges that it was 'The Eagle's' late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, that laid the foundation. Per Mendez, Abdulmanap is one of the greatest trainers of all time, and his students still dominating the sport is a testament to his ability. Speaking on the Know Time podcast he said:"His father was to me one of the greatest trainers of all time and he had the great mindset... He had no striking per se, but he had great ground, great judo, great sambo and in jiu-jitsu... And he was super successful with it, and his students are the ones that are now becoming the champions. Most of what he [Khabib] got, he got from his father, and I added the little special touches. So, in other words... I made the house really pretty, but that the framework was there and that was [his] father." [39:32 minutes into the interview]