Islam Makhachev joked that he is struggling now that his former training partner has taken up a prominent coaching role in his camp.
‘The Eagle’ incredibly has champions in the UFC, Bellator, and PFL at the end of 2024.
However, his star pupil recently revealed all that success is earned through painstaking gym sessions, which he thinks Daniel Cormier could help calm down.
Islam Makhachev asks Daniel Cormier for help
UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev recently sat down with his former training partner Daniel Cormier, who was his teammate at Javier Mendez’s AKA gym.
The 33-year-old Russian mostly spoke about his upcoming fight with top contender Arman Tsarukyan, who he will defend his belt against at UFC 311 on January 18.
At one point, Cormier brought up Makhachev getting ‘smashed’ in training later that day.
The UFC star immediately invited ‘DC’ to the gym in an effort to control Nurmagomedov, who has seemingly been ruling with an iron fist.
Makhachev said: “Maybe you can come join us and control him a little bit because he doesn’t listen to Javier. I always tell Javier, ‘You are the head coach, you’re older than him. Stop him’.
Cormier replied: “He is just a psychopath, nobody can control him. I can’t control him.
Makhachev pleaded. “Try, try, try. Come to the camp, man… It’s gonna be also very good for you, brother, to lose weight.
Cormier conceded: “I’ll come by, but I can’t control this guy…
“Hey, you better stop talking about my weight because you look like you’ve put on a few pounds.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov previews UFC super fight
Islam Makhachev has been open about his desire to win the UFC welterweight title, which is currently held by Belal Muhammad after his win over Leon Edwards in July.
Muhammad has trained with Team Khabib in the past, but he’s not a part of their squad. Still, the 29-0 legend would prefer that Makhachev avoided a fight with ‘Remember The Name’ as his ‘heart is not okay‘ with the matchup.
Nurmagomedov said: “If they had asked me to fight with Belal when I was an active fighter, [my answer would be] no – but for example, Belal and Islam, okay well you’ve got to talk with them [about that].
“My heart, my heart is not okay [with this], it would be hard [for me] to prepare Islam to beat Belal.”
Interestingly, Nurmagomedov would also state “I don’t think that it’s ever going to happen,” whether that means Makhachev will forgo his champ-champ aspirations whilst Muhammad remains champion, is unclear.
He added: “For me, it’s [always] going to be very hard to prepare somebody to beat Belal.
“If you want to beat Belal, I think you have to stop him. Without a stoppage, it’s going to be very hard – what are you going to do? Okay, say if you take him down, it’s very hard to control him for 25 minutes, first of all.
“Second, it’s very hard to dominate him on striking game in all 25 minutes because he mixes it up. He doesn’t stay with you all 25 minutes, he wrestlers and strike, wrestle and strike; he is good.”
