The first UFC champion from Russia gave an expert assessment of Nurmagomedov’s defeat.
Any experienced MMA fan will understand why Umar Nurmagomedov failed to become UFC champion last weekend. There is an unshakable postulate in martial arts: a fighter grows in direct proportion to the level of his opponents. This means that you can’t fight with only “bags” and comfortable ones, and therefore go out and win a very difficult match against a stylistically complex and really strong competitor. The fighter is simply not ready for this.
This is exactly what happened to Umar. Khabib Nurmagomedov, as his coach, did everything possible to win: he introduced his informant Magdi Amachov to Merab Dvalishvili’s camp, through him he learned about the Georgian’s injury and that he would be forced to take antibiotics for the next month, would not be able to train because of the stitches on his leg, and therefore would not get into top shape. It seemed that the perfect moment had been chosen for the title fight, but Khabib overestimated his relative and underestimated Merab, as well as the level of competition in the bantamweight division, which is an order of magnitude higher than what was under him and remains under Islam Makhachev in the lightweight division.
Oleg Taktarov, our MMA dinosaur, the first fighter from Russia to receive the title of UFC champion and an outstanding geneticist who discovered the “caution gene” with the advent of which mixed martial arts have never been the same, shares the same opinion:
“The guy is not ready,” the veteran said during a live broadcast on a social network. “It was your brothers who did not let him out (allegedly) ready. They set him up, by and large. Well, it is obvious that the guy is not ready for five rounds. He broke his finger there, it does not matter. He is not ready for five rounds! And they let him out… Who among us is bad? I did not let him out. On the contrary, I enjoyed it. The man created such competition.”
“Your Umar may become a champion if his “brothers” don’t let him down. If he now works on his mistakes, lives in the mountains, runs a bit more, trains at high altitudes and returns as a different person. But for now he is not a champion. Although he has good data, I liked him. The first three and a half rounds were very good.”
Yep the mountain gorillas underestimated Merab.
Umar was breathing so heavy at end of 2nd round, I knew the tone of the fight was going to change next 3 rounds.
So did Khabib, he ordered Umar to take Merab to the ground next round, which I thought was odd at the time but he also knew Merab was going to start pulling on the leash.
Merab’s cardio/conditioning is some of the best we have ever seen. I would argue the best.
Because the Diaz brothers for example could go all die by throwing pitter-patter punches all day, the same that head boxing announcers saying Nate didnt know how punch with any power when he fought Jake Paul.
But Merab is the first I’m aware of that is explosive for 5 rounds and doesnt get tired.
The only things they could have done to better prepare are having him spar hard with a fresh guy for 5+ rounds and to give him loads of EPO.
I know Magdi personally. This is not what happened.
Magdi has known Merab for longer than he’s known the Dagis. He’s only been in the US a few years.
As someone who coached him when he first came to the US, I can promise he had no ties with any of those guys from training. Magdi isn’t a sambo or MMA guy either, he’s a freestyle wrestler. His striking and submission training didn’t start until he reached the US
I taught a leg lock class on sunday’s at the gym he trained at when he first got here. He didn’t know what a straight ankle lock or heel hook was. I said something like “I thought all of you people learn sambo in primary school” lol.
I had a deal with the head coach there when they had guys getting ready for trials where their head coach taught me wrestling and I taught a leg lock class for those guys. Magdi was sooo fucking smooth wrestling. I’m 40 pounds heavier than him and dude would air mail me with 5 points back arches.
He had never thrown a punch in his life when he got there, and within 6 months he looked like he’s been striking years. Soaks shit up like a sponge, and actually listens to his coaches, not YouTube. A coaches dream.
there is a couple of huge ass interviews of Amachov but only vids, no text. In the cliffs to one of them, it is said How a coach from Pennsylvania started calling Magdi his son
00:00 - Who is this video about
01:45 - Shocked by Merab’s cardio: “He can work 10 rounds non-stop!”
04:15 - An amazing story about meeting Merab in Las Vegas
06:40 - "He told me: “Dude, you have a great future, you have a gift!”
08:35 - Merab settled Magdi in his house after their first meeting
10:05 - Lives on the money he earns on social networks
12:10 - How a coach from Pennsylvania started calling Magdi his son
18:42 - Sold perfume in Astrakhan, met an American in Istanbul and moved to the States
24:35 - About his debut fight in MMA. Magdy is a wrestler, but he threw a showtime kick
31:40 - How he threw money when Anthony Pettis went out to fight
33:23 - Meeting Nate Diaz. “Outplayed in gangster”
35:20 - About the video where Magdy and Merab give each other a massage in a jacuzzi
36:40 - When they met, Sean said to Magdy: “Let’s check whose wrestling is stronger - American or Dagestani”
38:30 - About his upbringing: “When my father came home, we got up from our seats”
39:47 - About the first legendary video with Magdy, when he was asked about the bomber
42:10 - Who will you root for if Merab is assigned a fight against Umar Nurmagomedov?
44:05 - Prediction for the fight between Merab and Cejudo
47:05 - Who did you spar with in America
48:15 - About friendship with former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamal Hill
52:00 - Saygid Izagakhmaev and Ikram Aliskerov advised to work as a truck driver and leave the sport
53:10 - When will he have his next fight
55:00 - Does he pull UFC fighters in sparring? And will he move to the UFC?
1:00:05 - “Pop-MMA is dirty! You don’t pump it for men”
1:02:10 - About Muhammad Mutaev. Magdi knew him
I’m from West Virginia but I drive the 2 hours to Greencastle to train with those guys once a week when there are big comps coming up like ADCC trials or IBJJF pans. Magdi’s head coach there is Josh Hummer, he’s a brilliant coach and great dude.
Magdi still has Hummer still goes out to corner him for fights. Hummer and him have a phenomenal relationship.
Hummer is a great guy. I have my ibjjf black belt paperwork done through that gym (my main home gym isn’t IBJJF approved because of politics with the Joe Moriera lineage)
I haven’t been there in a while because of injuries but I’m very grateful for the wrestling help I’ve gotten from Hummer and the opportunity to help with their leg locks
I consider Magdi and Hummer as trustworthy as they come. Enough so that when Magdi’s first fight was supposed to be in my hometown, even though I was out of town cornering at a different event, I left my house unlocked and told Hummer and Magdi to stay there.
Fight fell through because his opponent is a pussy who despite pretending he’s Billy Badass because he wrestled D1, he pulled out and faked an injury the second he saw it was a Dagi. I know he faked the injury because he took another fight a few weeks later.
Magdi’s getting a lot of shit talked about him by that shit coach at Syndicate and people who don’t know the situation well and just assume he’s a snake, which is understandable. Only reason I’m posting this much about it, he doesn’t deserve the shit he’s getting and I understand that people who don’t know it would assume he’s a rat like Oleg did here
Thank you for extensive clarification. I didn’t know he was getting a lot of shit. This article I posted, is a google translation from a Russian MMA website where they are normally talking shit on everyone, so Magdi didn’t stand out for me
Definitely not a derail, its cool to hear the additional details, having never heard of this guy before. So do Merab’s camp believe this guy was ratting on Merab to the Nurmegamedov camp then? Or is that narrative just being pushed by Oleg?
His camp, the syndicate guy, got pissy that Magdi is friends with Khabib and co, so he told him he couldn’t train with Merab for this fight, which is reasonable. But then he told him that if he trains with the Dagi’s he’s never allowed back in the gym again. Merab has no ill will, neither does Magdi.
He’s making it sound like Merab is just too nice. In reality he’s just a bad coach who doesn’t understand the dynamics. He should go back to fucking Jenna Jameson and doing reality shows, his true calling.
But it was on the Littlest Mermaid’s show so now all the Jake Paul casuals are parroting it to maximize drama.
