Khabib Nurmagomedov praised Dan Ige for his performance against Edson Barboza. Less than 24 hours ago, Ige and Barboza threw down in the middle of the octagon. The fight was a close call. However, Ige stole a split decision victory.

Dan Ige’s post-fight interview

“I did my best to go in there, grind and push as hard as I can. Even in that third round,” Ige told Paul Felder during his post-fight interview. “Thank you to my lord and savior, Jesus Christ. He gave me the strength in the third round to really push, actually through the whole fight.

“Edson’s a tough guy. One of the best in the world. It’s such an honor to share the octagon with him.”

As far as the preparation was concerned, Ige revealed that the gameplan was to pressure. But he also acknowledged that he was nervous before the fight. Nevertheless, the nerves settled down once he reached the arena.

“I don’t care who is in front of me. I’m gonna go out there and do my best and get the ‘W.’”

Teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov is proud of Dan Ige

Ige and Khabib have a friendly relationship with each other. The American and the Dagestani train at American Kickboxing Academy under the guidance of Javier Mendez.

Is Edson Barboza a victim of another controversial decision?

Before his fight with Barboza, Ige was on a 5-fight win streak. His victory at Jacksonville improved it to 6. But not everybody considers it a fair win. Many argued that Barboza had done enough to win the fight, especially the first two rounds. MMA Fighting scored the first two rounds in favor of him as well.

To Barboza’s bad luck, this was his second controversial decision loss. In September 2019, he suffered from a similar fate when the judges scored the bout in favor of his opponent, Paul Felder.

His team tried to appeal the decision but it was upheld. Similarly, Alex Davis—the manager of Edson Barboza—plans to appeal this fight as well. In a recent tweet, Davis said that bad judging is ruining MMA.