There is a good reason that Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s Dagestani cohorts are so dominant in MMA. Islam Makhachev, after all, is the lightweight champion and looks nigh unbeatable. Khabib’s cousin, Usman, is a Bellator champion, and his other cousin, Umar Nurmagomedov, is ranked #2 and knocking on the doors of a bantamweight title shot in the possibly very near future. These, of course, are just the best-known of Khabib’s acolytes. And the reason they are so dominant? The Godfather of Dagestani fighters, Khabib himself, at least according to Umar.

The bantamweight joined UFC icons Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on their ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast where ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ came out and asked Umar: “What’s the biggest Advantage for you guys having someone like Khabib in the gym with you guys every day?” To which Umar clarified that while ‘The Eagle’ wasn’t the ‘sole’ reason behind their success, he was the biggest one.

“I think it’s [Khabib’s presence] is the main reason because why we on the top right but it’s not one person we have a lot right now… we have Islam, lightweight, we have Usman [Nurmagomedov]… and we have a lot of guys. And it’s Khabib, it’s the main reason because he pushes us and he very good example for us, you know. When everybody knows if you will work, if you’ll train hard, hard work always pays back,” he said.

To be more precise, it was the ethos of discipline, hard work, and the spirit of brotherhood that Khabib was famous for and which he instilled in all his teammates.

“And we follow his rules, we listen to him and keep train and we don’t go party, we don’t have some journey. We don’t go anywhere, we just focus on our training camps,  and we focus on our fights and we help each other. We like family you know and this guy [Khabib] who built this, right,” Umar added.

And the #2 ranked bantamweight is hoping to continue Khabib’s legacy, as he gears up for what will most definitely be the most difficult matchup of his career so far.

Merab Dvalishvili will be the biggest test for Umar Nurmagomedov’s wrestling

Umar, like Khabib, is undefeated in MMA. And with the newly minted bantamweight champion, Merab Dvalishvili, having changed his tune over facing the ‘undeserving’ Umar for his first title defense, Umar, like Khabib, is on the cusp of becoming champion.

If he can defeat ‘The Machine’, who effortlessly takes down opponents and mauls them, that would be impressive. There is much more akin to Khabib than the ground game Umar possesses. This is not to say that Umar lacks in the wrestling department. While not quite as dominant on the ground as his illustrious cousin, Umar has a remarkably well-rounded game with a kind of dynamic, world-class striking that Khabib never developed.

Notably, ‘The Eagle’ didn’t need to develop much of a stand-up game. A good comparison would be Shaquille O’Neal, who couldn’t shoot (especially free throws) to save his life, but was literally unstoppable in the paint. Likewise, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s grappling was equally unstoppable in the octagon, which meant he didn’t really need much of a stand-up game at all.

Umar looks like the next evolution of that dominant Dagestani wrestling-first style. Yet, how Umar’s ground game compares to his other Dagestani cohorts remains to be seen. And a fight with Merab Dvalishvili will answer this question either way once and for all. What are your predictions for a clash between Umar Nurmagomedov and Merab Dvalishvili?