Islam Makhachev is just a few weeks away from making the fourth defense of his lightweight title, and he is on the verge of breaking the 155lb record for title defenses.
Kicking off the UFC’s portion of PPVs in 2025 is UFC 311 on January 18, featuring a huge lightweight main event between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan.
The two first met back in 2019 during Tsarukyan’s UFC debut. After suffering a loss, ‘Ahalkalakets’ climbed his way up the lightweight rankings, earning himself a title shot.
Javier Mendez claims that working with Khabib Nurmagomedov is still a ‘work in progress’. The Russian champion has built an extremely solid corner team, which includes Mendez and former lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov.
‘The Eagle’ has cornered the 33-year-old on several occasions, but Mendez has indicated that their relationship as coaches continues to evolve. He has confirmed that Nurmagomedov will be part of Makhachev’s corner for UFC 311 and explained his role.
“It’ll be a combination of me and Khabib giving Islam advice in the corner,” Mendez explained. “It cannot be just Khabib. It has to be both of us because we have different things that we see, and we both need to give our opinions.”
Mendez noted that on the few occasions he and Khabib have shared cornering responsibilities, he has observed that Khabib tends to get a ‘little crazy’, which can make it challenging for him to offer his input.
“But the most important thing is we have to let Khabib and I do our talking,” Mendez continued. “At the very beginning, Khabib would get a little crazy, and he wouldn’t let me talk and he’d say, ‘Coach, how was it?’ I’d go, ‘It was great but you just didn’t let me talk.’”
Mendez acknowledged that their collaboration is a work in progress, adding, “He’s such a great coach that for me, it’s just fun to watch him turn into one of the greatest coaches ever. I think it’s unbelievable for me to see that with my own eyes.”
The team has a jam-packed schedule on January 18, as the co-main event features a bantamweight title fight between Merab Dvalishvili and Umar Nurmagomedov. Umar has always been one of Mendez’s main students, but he is now passing most of the responsibility to Khabib, explaining what role ‘The Eagle’ will play at UFC 311.
“As far as having a semi-main and the main on top of that, I’m used to that. Khabib is a really good coach now and has taken over the reins, so I’m coming in as the overseer, more or less.” Mendez elaborated.
“I’m his mentor. I’m the coach, but he controls everything. You can’t take the lead role all the time because they need to show their experience. I’m on the sidelines. I give Khabib advice all the time, but the control is more on him now than it is me with these guys,” Mendez concluded.
Source link
