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MMA

13th Aug 2018

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father offers his prediction for Conor McGregor fight

Ben Kiely

Unsurprisingly, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father isn’t backing against his son.

Khabib Nurmagomedov Da would beat up Conor McGregor’s Da. Fortunately, it won’t have to come to that since the two UFC fighters in each family will settle their beef inside the Octagon at UFC 229.

We’ve heard all sorts of predictions from fighters and friends of both parties. SBG men John Kavanagh, Owen Roddy, Dillon Danis and James Gallagher have all predicted their teammate to add the first loss to Nurmagomedov’s record. As has Urijah Faber.

Eddie Alvarez and John Danaher remain firmly on the fence while Dustin Poirier is leaning towards Khabib Nurmagomedov. That being said, ‘The Diamond’ isn’t ruling out the possibility of McGregor getting his hand against the Dagestani.

The apple doesn’t fall far

As for Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s father and coach, he believes the fight is a complete mismatch. Abdulmanap told Alexander Lyutikov that he expects his son to win handily.

“Of course he understands that a five-round fight against Khabib will be a nightmare for him. He only has a puncher’s chance. But Khabib has never been knocked down before. He has never been wobbled. I think Khabib’s chin is strong enough for welterweight as well as lightweight.”

“Physically and tactically, Khabib is stranger than Conor. Khabib has better cardio than Conor and 100% Khabib has better wrestling and grappling. We will choke him out when we decide to do it. Of course, Conor’s left hand is very dangerous and he can throw the right uppercut. That’s all. What else? Nothing.”

Gassing out

Abdulmanap prescribes to the theory that McGregor has an issue with his cardio. He believes that after two rounds, McGregor will be no threat.

“(Conor is dangerous) for eight to nine minutes, no more. After the first clinch, Khabib will take him down. We will finish this fight when we want. We respect our fans. If they want to watch all five rounds, we will fight all five rounds. But after two rounds, he has nothing to do on his feet. After two rounds, he will not be able to do anything. We don’t want to lose even one round. Khabib has never lost a single round.

Now that’s confidence. However, 26 men have tried and failed to beat Nurmagomedov. You’d expect nothing less.