Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov may be the most influential man in MMA history. The Gracies may have got the ball rolling, Dana White may have made it a proper sport, and Conor McGregor may have made it popular in the mainstream, but that pales in comparison to Abdulmanap’s achievements. After all, winning a UFC title is the hardest thing and the biggest achievement in the sport. And the legendary Abdulmanap has produced two UFC world champions with more on the way.

Before Khabib Nurmagomedov and Co. blew the doors off the MMA world, virtually no one knew what Dagestan was. Today, the remote Russian region is synonymous with world-class fighters who have taken the world by storm. This is why Abdulmanap’s untimely death was a blow to the entire combat sports world. In this article, celebrate the life and take a look at the circumstances around the great man’s death.

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s early life and military service

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov was born in December 1962 amidst the picturesque Caucuses mountains in the remote village of Sildi, Dagestan in the erstwhile USSR. Like his son Khabib, Abdulmanap’s first love was soccer, although wrestling was still popular in Dagestan at the time he grew up as it is today. The legendary coach was quite good at soccer, too, having played for a second-tier club by the time he was in sixth grade.

However, fate had different, much grander plans for Abdulmanap. In his teenage, he switched to wrestling and started training hard. His daily routine as a young man apparently consisted of twenty-two kilometers of cycling, followed by eight kilometers of walking, and two hours of hard sparring on the mat.

In memory of abdulmanap. When he was a 29yo khabib
byu/Mmaplayer123 inMMA

In 1974, at the age of twelve, Abdulmanap had his first taste of competitive action as he placed second in a wrestling tournament. While most would be happy to come second in their first-ever competition, Abdulmanap was built different. Not winning this competition motivated the coach to work even harder, and he went on to win a couple of wrestling competitions back to back. At the age of 19, he joined the Soviet military, where he would start training in Combat Sambo and Judo and eventually went on to become a very highly-regarded coach.

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s wife, kids, and family

Abdulmanap’s coaching career began with family. The coach started training his brother, Nurmagomed Nurmagomedov in 1987 which led to the latter winning the Sambo World Championship for Ukraine. It is unclear exactly when Abdulmanap got married, but he had two sons- Magomed and Khabib by the time he was 27 years old in 1988. Subsequently, Abdulmanap and his wife were blessed with their third and final child- a daughter named Amina.

In fact, it was his family that brought him back to Dagestan. Abdulmanap was a well-known coach at this time, but since he was an instructor in the Soviet army, he was posted out of Dagestan for almost the entirety of his service. But, determined to continue coaching and with three young children to raise, Abdulmanap left the army and returned to his homeland.

Although no one, least of Abdulmanap knew it, his decision to return home and start a gym would turn out to be a cannon-level event in the history of martial arts, which would change the course of combat sports history

Who did Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov train? His notable students

As we have mentioned, Abdulmanap’s first dedicated student was his brother. The coach turned the first two floors of his home into a gym and started training young Dagestanis in Combat Sambo and wrestling. His sons, Khabib and Magomed would start training as soon as they could walk and his Abdulmanap’s nephews, Abubakar, Umar, and Usman soon followed suit.

All of these Nurmagomedov boys, except Magomed, would go on to become mixed martial artists. However, that would come later. These boys trained in Combat Sambo under Abdulmanap, with Khabib, Umar, and Islam Makhachev going on to become Combat Sambo world champions. But these are just a few of his illustrious students. After all, Abdulmanap has nineteen Combat Sambo world champions to his credit, with a handful coming from his family alone.

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s cause of death

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s legendary tutelage saw his son, Khabib become not only a UFC champion, but also perhaps the most dominant fighter in the history of MMA. In fact, even though Khabib, Islam, and the rest of the Dagestani guys started training at the AKA gym after transitioning to MMA, Abdulmanap was still an essential part of their career, serving as a mentor and coach.

However, tragedy struck in April 2020. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Abdulmanap contracted the virus while he was in Dagestan. The legendary coach was taken to the Second City Hospital of Makhachakala and was diagnosed with pneumonia. His condition worsened, and the family chartered a private jet to take him to Moscow.

However, that unfortunately didn’t help much, and Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, at the age of 57, passed away in July of the same year due to complications arising from COVID-19. Needless to say, his family was absolutely devastated. His wife made Khabib promise to give up fighting since his father would no longer be there to ‘protect’ him.

‘The Eagle’ was in camp to fight Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 when his father was diagnosed and then passed away from the virus. Khabib decided to proceed with that fight since that is what his father wanted. As soon as the fight was over, Khabib broke down in the Octagon and bid a tearful goodbye to his career, closing one of the most consequential and exciting chapters in the history of MMA. What do you think about Abdulmanap’s life and death?