Khabib Nurmagomedov has been a hugely dominant fighter and has had quite a winning streak as a coach as well, but he revealed a lot about himself when one of his attackers recently lost to Sergio Pettis. This happened to Magomed Magomedov, who ended up on the wrong side of a spinning back elbow KO loss to Pettis when the two fought PFL Dubai earlier this month.
In the aftermath, there was an abundance of respect shown by the Nurmagamedov team, and when talking about his interaction with Khabib Nurmagamedov after the Magomedov match, Pettis said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Khabib is a great man, a great athlete in general. Came up to me right after, shook my hand, he said ‘well done on the win and tell your brother I say hi’, you know. Just a friendly guy. It was cool to see how they interact with each other, with the Dagestani people, with the athletes there.”
“It reminds me of what my team is like at home. They have a fair one; happy, smiling, hardworking, very proud of each other, very supportive of each other. So it was cool to see all that, man. Just to be on opposite corners, that was a big event for me.”
“To have Khabib in someone’s corner and beat one of his students was definitely a big event for me. An unforgettable moment forever. But yeah, man, those guys are great. Great athletes there.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov, Sergio Pettis, and the art of compartmentalization
Khabib Nurmagomedov showed a great ability to compartmentalize things by showing respect as a coach while likely being in pain for his fighter. Pettis has also shown he can compartmentalize things by separating the work in the training room from fighting in live competition.
This is reflected by Pettis by fighting old teammate Raufeon Stots and also making an offer to his recent opponent, Magomed Magomedov, to train with him one day. When touching on the pieces about how helpful it has been for him to compartmentalize things this way, Pettis said: [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“I’ve been fortunate to do that, especially with someone like Raufeon Stots, because he’s a great athlete, a great guy, a great teammate, a great father. So we’ve put all that aside, just the teammate stuff, and we both support our family.”
“We’re like, at the end of the day, it’s business. You’re next and I’m next. So we’ll keep it respectful and keep it like we’ve always been, you know, good friends and may the best man win. So it was cool to have that with Raufeon, even with Magomed [Magomedov]Certainly.”
“You know, I’m a big fan of his style and I felt his style. I feel like that stuff works. I want to go learn it and just get to know different cultures and different styles. It would be great to get an invite there and just see what their world is like and get some perspective for my playing.”
#Khabib #Nurmagomedov #Sergio #Pettis #knocking #Eagles #teammate #BJPenn.com