Javier Mendez, the longtime coach of Khabib Nurmagomedov, isn’t shy about sharing his ideas on considered one of MMA’s most notorious nights: the 2018 conflict between Khabib and Conor McGregor.
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor
For individuals who in some way missed it, this was the combat that pitted the undefeated Dagestani wrestler in opposition to the brash Irish striker, a bout that ended with Khabib submitting McGregor within the fourth spherical, after which, in true MMA vogue, sparking a post-fight brawl that had everybody speaking for weeks.
Coach Javier Mendez
Javier Mendez is a revered MMA coach and the founding father of American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, a fitness center identified for producing world champions. He’s finest identified for guiding Khabib Nurmagomedov to an undefeated profession and UFC light-weight title, however his teaching résumé additionally consists of legends like Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier, Islam Makhachev, and Luke Rockhold, amongst many others.
Javier Mendez just lately peeled again the curtain on what actually occurred in these closing moments. Talking in an interview with Mike Perry, he defined:
“Folks have requested me on that choke that [Khabib Nurmagomedov] had on him the place Conor tapped… I mentioned, ‘Khabib, I’ve been telling folks that interview me, I’ve been saying that you just didn’t need him to faucet. You needed to maintain punishing him.’ And I’m going, ‘Am I proper?’ And he goes, ‘No coach, you have been improper.’ He goes, ‘I needed him to faucet. Earlier on [in the fight], no, I needed to punish him. However on the very finish, I needed him to faucet. If he didn’t faucet, his jaw was gonna get damaged.’”
So, for anybody nonetheless arguing about whether or not Khabib Nurmagomedov was out for blood or simply enterprise, it seems he was a little bit of each. However breaking a jaw was a bridge he was keen to cross.
In fact, the story of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor is about extra than simply chokes and takedowns. The lead-up to the combat was a circus, with McGregor taking intention at Khabib’s household, faith, and nation, a transfer that didn’t precisely win him followers in Workforce Khabib’s nook.
Mendez didn’t mince phrases: “[If] you wish to discuss a fighter, go forward. However [McGregor] talked about faith, he talked about household, he talked about nation. I don’t respect fighters doing that. I like a fighter that sticks to the fighter… Depart my children out of it, depart my spouse out of it. What have they got to do [with it]?”
Regardless of the fireworks, Mendez insists he’s not holding any grudges, however issues are undoubtedly not chill between the groups. He continued:
“I don’t maintain a grudge, however I don’t like the way in which [Conor McGregor] conducts himself. So I’m not going to make an effort to go communicate to the person. No, I cannot. I cannot make an effort. Now, I’m not saying I’ve a beef with him. I don’t have beef with him. That’s him and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“However I don’t have beef with him, so I’m not going to be on his facet by any means. And I’m Workforce Khabib until I die. I’m Workforce Khabib. However I don’t have beef with the person. I’m not going to go as much as him and say, ‘Hey, you!’ I don’t have something unhealthy to say about him in that regard in individual, and I’ve no need, and I cannot go up and shake his hand.”
After their explosive 2018 showdown, Khabib Nurmagomedov continued his dominance by defending his light-weight title in opposition to Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, then retired undefeated in 2020, citing a lack of aggressive hearth and the passing of his father as key causes for stepping away from the game. Conor McGregor, in the meantime, struggled to recapture his former glory, securing just one win in opposition to Donald Cerrone earlier than struggling back-to-back losses to Dustin Poirier and a critical leg damage in 2021; his profession has since been marked by lengthy layoffs, canceled fights, courtroom controversy, trials, and protracted hypothesis about whether or not he’ll ever return to prime kind.
So, whereas the mud might have settled on that wild evening in Las Vegas, the reminiscences, and the opinions, are nonetheless very a lot alive. And for those who’re searching for somebody to shake arms and make up, you may wish to look elsewhere. Workforce Khabib is sticking collectively, jawbones and all.
