Khabib Nurmagomedov is a UFC Lightweight champion with a perfect professional career record 26:0. Despite being one of the best UFC fighters at the moment, Khabib is not as popular and there is a lot of interesting facts about him that people don’t know.

That’s why here, we would like to share 10 little-known things about Khabib – his biography, personal life and early days before he became famous in the MMA world.

1. Khabib started practicing freestyle wrestling at the age of 6. He was coached by his father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov – one of the best judo and combat sambo specialists in Dagestan. Khabib’s grandfather Magomed was a freestyle wrestler as well – so it’s a fact that Khabib had it all in the blood from the start. 2. As a teenager, Khabib was successful at all types of wrestling and martial art (which are popular in Russia): judo, combat sambo, pankration, grappling, Greco-Roman wrestling. According to his father, knowledge of these techniques is a key to Khabib’s success in the MMA, it makes him more flexible than his opponents.



Here is the video of Khabib’s first MMA fight in Russia.

3. Khabib loves football (soccer). Since he was little, Khabib always enjoyed watching football games (he started watching since the 1994 World Cup). Before he injured his knee, he would play a lot as well.

His favorite team is Anzhi Makhachkala from where he is from. Khabib is also a long time Real Madrid fan and good friends with one of the most popular players in the world Cristiano Ronaldo.

4. Khabib is very religious. He is a devout Muslim, and he never fights during the holy month of Ramadan. Khabib fasts during that time and only trains late in the evening and at night. Khabib doesn’t drink alcohol at all times.

5. He is a big fan of Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor is the most popular and respected MMA fighter among the Russians. They met for the first time in 2004 at the combat sambo competition in Makhachkala “Dagestan Open” which Fedor won. Since then, Khabib followed Fedor’s career and watched all of his MMA fights. In one of the interviews, Khabib said that Fedor is part of the reason why loves MMA and why he choose MMA over Olympic sports.

6. According to his father, Khabib will fight until he is 32. Abdulmanap once mentioned that his son won’t likely to fight much longer. He said that 32 is probably the age when Khabib’s physical conditions will go down and he’ll stop fighting at the highest level.

7. Khabib is the most popular Russian athlete on Instagram. At the current moment as of August of 2018, he has over 3 million followers on Instagram.

8. Khabib’s weight during time off between the fights goes close to 200 lb (90 kg). Khabib is known for cutting a lot of weight, he fights in Lightweight division at 155 lb but after weigh-ins, he gains about 15 lb on top of it. Some consider it cheating, but Khabib plays by the rules which are set by the organization. And these rules are the same for everyone so anyone can use it to their advantage.

By the way, there was a rumor that Khabib and his team consider a move to Welterweight after defending a title against McGregor. And who knows, maybe, at some point, he’ll fight GSP in the Welterweight.

9. Khabib Nurmagomedov’s walkout song is performed by Sabrine Kors and it’s about his motherland Dagestan. He is a patriotic man – while walking to the Octagon, he also wears grandfather’s papakha hat.



10. Khabib and tiramisu. Did Khabib eat tiramisu a few days prior to UFC 209 when he pulled out from the fight against Tony Ferguson because of the health issues while cutting weight? According to him, they went to the restaurant with his friends where they ordered a cake. Khabib says that he had his own food at the restaurant because he was on a strict diet; tiramisu belonged to his friends at the table.

I mean, do you really think a guy, who seems to be so disciplined and professional, who doesn’t smoke and drink alcohol, would eat a cake at the time when he needs to cut weight before the fight? I hardly think so, it’s just a silly meme that’s going around.

That was some of the little-known facts about Khabib Nurmagomedov and his personal life. Hope you guys learned something new about Khabib in this article.

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