ABU DHABI – Javier Mendez could have seen Khabib Nurmagomedov ruling over three UFC weight classes.
Nurmagomedov (29-0 MMA, 13-0 UFC) retired as an undefeated UFC lightweight champion after his father passed away. He fought his final fight against Justin Gaethje in October 2020 without his father in his corner.
Nurmagomedov is widely considered the most dominant fighter in UFC history. No one had an answer for his intense pressure and wrestling, which he used to maul his opponents. Mendez is so high on Nurmagomedov that he thinks he could have captured two more UFC titles.
“From what I remember, the conversations that Khabib and his father had and this was in Russian so it was being interpreted to me, and his father always wanted him at 155,” Mendez told MMA Junkie. “(He) was doing great there and if anything, they wanted a legacy fight with GSP. His father envisioned GSP and him.
“For me personally, as his coach since 2012, my personal feeling is that this guy could have won easily the lightweight which he did, the welterweight, and the middleweight. I believe he’s that good. He would have 100 percent cleaned the clock on all of those three divisions, in my heart, what I seen in my eyes. I’ve seen him forever, and I watched what he did, and I watched how he kept improving.”
Nurmagomedov’s finals three wins came in submission finishes over three of the lightweight division’s best strikers in Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Gaethje. Mendez says he saw exponential growth in “The Eagle’s” stand up over the years.
“What people don’t understand is that he only really did his vast majority of his striking with me so, he wasn’t with me, but four, three-and-a-half months of the year, he’d do striking at home, but not with a real coach,” Mendez continued. “It was only me and maybe a few of my other coaches, ‘Pops’ Carvalho, and that’s pretty much it. We were the only ones training him. That’s why people don’t realize that Khabib – watch his evolvement in the striking from one, to another, to another.
“You’ll see him jumping up levels. At the very end there, he literally was beating up all the guys in stand up. Just standup, and I’d just put him in with pro boxers, and he’d beat them up in standup, too. That’s how good he was getting, but unfortunately the world don’t get to see him anymore because without his father, he just didn’t feel that it was the right thing. So hey, it all worked out in God’s plan, and now it’s father’s plan.”
Nurmagomedov’s protege Islam Makhachev will look to capture a second UFC belt when he challenges welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena later in the year.
