One of the best mixed style fighters in the lightweight division is considered to be the magnificent Khabib Nurmagomedov, who wins in all his fights. However, the main creator of his exploits should still be called his father and coach - Abulmanap Nurmagomedov. Master of sports in freestyle wrestling, champion of major sambo and judo competitions, he grew into an authoritative coach who brought up a whole galaxy of excellent fighters, including his son.
Sports career
Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov (Avar by nationality) was born in Dagestan in 1962. The number one sport in the republic, of course, was freestyle wrestling, which the future coach was successfully engaged in. Working hard in the gyms, he reached the title of master of sports.
When the time came, he went to serve in the Armed Forces, where he became interested in judo and sambo.
Having gained experience in several types of martial arts, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, whose biography in sports was just beginning, perfectly mastered the technique of pain and suffocation from different angles, sides, points, which greatly helped him in his future coachingactivities. After the army, the Dagestani stayed in Ukraine, where he successfully continued playing sports. Over the years of his active career, he became the champion of the republic in judo and sambo.
At the same time, Nurmagomedov learns the basics of coaching art, studying under the guidance of the best domestic specialists. Over the years, his mentors were the Honored Master of Sports Pyotr Ivanovich Butriy, the 1976 Olympic champion Nevzorov. The stubborn and persistent fighter absorbed the basics and methods of training athletes like a sponge.
The beginning of the coaching journey
Since Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov was an Avar by nationality, he could not imagine life away from his native Dagestan. Soon he returned to his homeland and launched his coaching activities here, not being afraid of the difficult conditions of the North Caucasus in the early nineties.
However, even in Ukraine, he managed to raise a great athlete. The first experience of the young specialist was his younger brother Nurmagomed, from whom he made the world champion in sports sambo.
Next, Abdulmanap Magomedovich Nurmagomedov trained only in his homeland. A specialist in various types of martial arts, he has successfully worked in different directions. He began with the preparation of a whole group of wrestlers. Nurmagomedov brought up a number of champions of Russia and Dagestan in freestyle wrestling, among whom were Magomedkhan Kaziev, Khadzhimurat Mutalimov, Khasan Magomedov.
Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov: children
In the life of a Dagestan, like other coaches, the most important place is occupied by sportscareers of his students. The brightest diamond in the rich collection of the Dagestan coach, of course, is his son Khabib, one of the best MMA fighters of our time.
The children of Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov spent all their free time in gyms with their father's pupils, barely learning to walk. By the way, Khabib and his older brother Magomed made their first steps on wrestling mats. The guys did not have to be forced to study, from the age of two they performed somersaults, running, general physical exercises, repeating them after the older pupils.
Khabib Breakthrough
Initially, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov estimated Magomed's chances higher than Khabib's. He was faster, smarter, tactically more competent. Already at the age of 16, the elder brother was a member of the Dagestan freestyle wrestling team. However, Khabib strenuously closed the gap with hard training and hard work on himself.
He literally demanded that his father be included in the team, participate in the training camp. During the year, Khabib worked at 15 training camps, having done a titanic job, after which his results went up. By the age of 16, he was among the best in the country in sambo and hand-to-hand combat, after which his rich capabilities became apparent.
Bringing Nurmagomedov Jr. to a high level
Khabib Nurmagomedov decided not to limit himself to classical martial arts and try his hand at mixed martial arts.
Wrestling training, painful and suffocating techniques from sambo andjudo - all this was provided to him by his father. However, the pragmatic Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov understood the need to give his son shock training.
Specially for this, a whole boxing course was organized in Poltava. The athlete was trained by an authoritative mentor who also trained Soviet boxers for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov immediately took the bull by the horns and directly asked the boxing specialist to give his son a blow that would be guaranteed to knock down opponents. So in the arsenal of Khabib appeared a killer uppercut, which during the fight he often performed with a swoop, which gave him even more strength. This and other techniques, tailored specifically for Nurmagomedov, allowed him to compete on equal terms in the octagon with the strongest UFC strikers.
Manap school
Having been working in Dagestan for a long time, Abdulmanap Magomedovich has earned tremendous prestige during this time. Of course, a whole Manap school of training mixed-style fighters was formed. Khabib himself worked with guys 5-7 years older than him, who subsequently showed themselves clearly in mixed style fights.
Among them, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov himself notes Shamil Zavurov, Magomed Magomedov, Dzhabrail Dzhabrailov. Khabib borrowed something from each of them for himself, enriching his fighting arsenal. For example, for Magomed Zhelezka, it was a knee to the head, with which he turned off many opponents.
Zavurov and Dzhabrailov also fiddled a lot with their younger friend and togethergave him a non-standard side pass at the feet.
However, lately, Khabib Nurmagomedov, continuing to train with his father, before the fights themselves leaves to prepare for the USA, where some principles of wrestling are set differently. The peculiarity of mixed-style fights is precisely the fight on the ground, work in a limited space near the cage, the constant struggle for initiative and position.
In turn, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov does not hesitate to adopt the achievements of his American rivals-colleagues, recognizing the insufficiency of the classical training of wrestlers and judokas for mixed-style fights.
Tactics and strategy of the master
The mountain base for the training of Dagestan fighters by an experienced mentor has long won prestige all over the world. Many foreign athletes are already expressing a desire to join the Nurmagomedov group. Rarefied air, high altitude conditions help the body to reveal hidden possibilities and discover new reserves.
Despite his considerable age and experience, Abdulmanap Magomedovich never considers it shameful for himself to borrow someone else's more successful experience.
For general physical training, he uses the old proven methods of the Soviet school, developed in collaboration with doctors and professors. He also sets up boxing training with the help of his assistants, based on the old school. At the same time, he recognizes the advantage of overseas masters in wrestling on the ground, their wider range of techniques in control on the mat and near the net. Proceeding from this, he first of all sets up a fight for his pupils in the stalls, buildingfrom this further training.
Failed fight with Ferguson
One of the most significant events in the world of mixed martial arts in 2017 was to be a title fight for the title of interim lightweight world champion. Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov argued for the belt. This fight has already been canceled twice, once due to Ferguson's injury, the other due to Khabib's fault.
The preparation of the Dagestani for the battle was complicated by the fact that his father and mentor could not be present with him due to problems with an entry visa to the United States.
Khabib's not the first time he had problems with weight, he always had to force the loss of extra pounds to keep within the framework of light weight. Usually this process was controlled by Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, but due to his absence from his son, everything got out of control. Shortly before the battle, the Dagestani felt a sharp pain in his liver and was hospitalized.
Now Abdulmanap Magomedovich continues to work with his students, among whom he especially singles out Islam Makhachev and Albert Tumenov.
