Khabib Nurmagomedov was in England to watch Manchester United play last week. During the trip he spent nearly two hours talking to The Islam Channel and the full video is available on YouTube.
He was asked his thoughts on the upcoming fight between Islam Makhachev and Dan Hooker. The two lightweights will face off at UFC 267 in Abu Dhabi and Khabib thinks there will only be one winner,
“Islam vs Dan Hooker is going to be a very big challenge for Islam. It’s gonna be a good challenge, he is number six but I think Hooker, he never fight someone like Islam, all his fights it was only versus strikers. I don’t know what he is going to do with Islam’s wrestling, pressure, dominance on the ground, how he is going to stop (him). He has only lucky punch, without this 99% Islam is going to maul him.”
The former UFC lightweight champion was asked about Jingliang Li‘s upcoming fight with Khamzat Chimaev which is also on the UFC 267 card. He thinks the Chinese fighter will lose,
“I think he is gonna win. I don’t think this guy can stop his wrestling, pressure, ground game, stand-up. I know this Korean guy, I don’t know his name, he’s very good. He’s good on his hands. But I think he (Chimaev) can take him down and finish him. I really believe. I don’t think he (Jingliang) can stop him.”
Khabib was speaking in English, which is his second language, which might explain why he confused China with Korea. He was also asked about wrestling bears, as a video surfaces of the Russian as a child wrestling with a bear.
The former UFC lightweight champion gave a candid answer, and said that he didn’t like it but his father made him do it. He talked about being forced to fight with other children, and believes it helped him to become one of the best fighters in the world as am adult.
