Team Khabib appears to be making their final preparations before Islam Makhachev and Umar Nurmagomedov as well as up-and-comer Tagir Ulanbekov, head inside the Octagon this weekend at UFC 311. During one of their recent training sessions, their manager, Ali Abdelaziz, also joined in to hit the mats, which led him to quickly grasp the feeling of training under Khabib Nurmagomedov.

AKA head coach Javier Mendez recently shared an instance from a training session at the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA), where he revealed that Khabib Nurmagomedov goes a little too hard on Ali Abdelaziz. But what could be the reason? Well, ‘The Eagle’ claims that Ali talks too much, which isn’t something he’s a fan of. Instead, he suggests that their team’s manager keep his mouth shut and only do what the coaches tell him to because in there, he’s a student.

“When he steps on the mats, he have to better be quite and listen to coaches [pointing at himself]… We [he and Javier Mendez] are coaches. He’s not coach,” said Khabib Nurmagomedov. “When he steps on the mat like student, shut up and train… [Ali] don’t have choice.”

Well, it may not have been a wise choice for Ali Abdelaziz to not follow what Khabib Nurmagomedov had to say because he continued to talk when all the UFC Hall of Famer had to say was for him to be “quiet.” Even the Dagestan collective tends to stay quiet whenever Khabib’s in charge, but they have mentioned many times that it’s never easy to train under him, including Islam Makhachev. Let’s see what he had to say about training under his mentor and best friend.

Islam Makhcahev claims Khabib Nurmagomedov pushes him too hard during training

Training is always great for the reigning lightweight champion, but just not when his childhood friend steps in to take charge. The reason behind this feeling is Khabib Nurmagomedov’s tendency to go too hard on his fighters, including Islam Makhachev. Moreover, things only get worse for the 155-pound king when he steps inside the cage for sparring sessions, and in a bid to impress the 29-0 legend, Makhachev often finds himself in a tough situation against his teammates.

“When Khabib is here, it’s more hard because you know, when I go to the cage with opponents, some of the guys… they want to look good in front of Khabib and they give me more hard time,” Islam Makhcahev recently stated this during an appearance on the Weighing In podcast. “After sparring, we do 10 rounds grappling, we do some drills, you know, like, more than two hours training.”

Well, there’s a reason why Khabib Nurmagomedov has achieved many accolades in his career and that is due to his intense training methods and his discipline. And even though Islam Makhachev dreads his mentor’s style of coaching, he understands that he has to follow the way of a champion to be the best fighter in the world. But what do you think about Khabib’s methods? Do you think ‘The Eagle’ did right by putting Ali Abdelaziz in his place during their recent training session? Drop your comments below.