‘The Eagle’ Has Landed

While Khabib won’t be in Islam’s corner, he’ll spend two weeks training Makhachev to beat Oliveira at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.

Khabib Nurmagomedov has followed through on his vow to leave the MMA world completely at the start of 2023. But he’s making an exception for his good friend and former training partner Islam Makhachev leading up to UFC 294.

Makhachev faces Charles Oliveira in Abu Dhabi on October 21st. One year ago, Islam took the lightweight title off Charles in the same venue, with Khabib in his corner. It’s unclear whether “The Eagle” will be with Makhachev in the UAE this time, but he’s preparing his pupil for “Do Bronx.”

“He will come tomorrow, train with us in the camp,” Makhachev said in a new interview with ESPN. “He’s not going to be my corner coach, but he will be here to help … we come here, like 40 guys, the whole team. I don’t know fight day where he’s gonna be, but next two weeks he’s gonna be here.”

Usman Nurmagomedov has described having Khabib as your coach like “having a mountain behind you,” and while that sounds reassuring, it also means he’s gonna make you work like you’ve never worked before.

“I miss the time when we were training together, when he had fight, when I had fight,” Islam said. “But when he become coach like two years, one year ago, he pressure us very hard, you know? We did drills, almost ten rounds sparring. And after all this work, after one and a half hours, he says ‘Okay, now five rounds grappling.’”

“We never did this when we train together!” he exclaimed. “Now that he become coach, he think he’s not tired cuz he corner everyone in the cage, and after the sparring he goes ‘Let’s grapple now,’ and he change the clothes and grapples with us five rounds more. Then we did push-ups, planks, many things.”

“I don’t know what’s coming tomorrow, but everyone is excited.”

“He’s gonna watch the whole sparring and he’s gonna train with us,” Makhachev finished. “He likes to train, likes to do some grappling. He’s training every day.”

The bookies already liked Islam Makhachev’s chances in the rematch against Charles Oliveira, and that was before Khabib committed to supporting him in the final weeks of his camp. Islam is currently a -340 favorite to beat the +270 Oliveira. Back in 2022, Makhachev finished Oliveira via arm triangle choke halfway through the second round.