“Everything as planned. Alhamdulillah,” Khabib Nurmagomedov posted on his Instagram story, sharing a clip of his protégé Islam Makhachev jumping rope before UFC 311. But only their immediate teammates knew how grueling the entire event was. First was Tagir Ulanbekov’s fight from the Dagestani camp, and later Umar Nurmagomedov stepped into the octagon with the intention of becoming the new bantamweight champion. But fate was cruel to him that evening as Merab Dvalishvili defended his belt.
As Makhachev watched his teammate’s first loss from the locker room, he couldn’t even find time to console him. The lightweight champion was scheduled to next enter the octagon against Renato Moicano. Though he won the bout in round 1 via submission (brabo choke), the team couldn’t relish it much. What does Makhachev have to say about UFC 311?
Islam Makhachev shared in an interview with Ushatyka about his thoughts on such a packed schedule for his team. As translated from Russian to English by YouTube’s auto-generated captions, the fighter stated:
“I already said to Khabib, I do not want to take fights like that anymore so that someone from the team fights before me. It doesn’t work.” Think about it, it’s not just about the physical grind, it’s the mental rollercoaster.