Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s protégé, Islam Makhachev, had a fabulous year in MMA. After he defeated Charles Oliveira to be crowned the king of the lightweight division. Makhachev credits a major part of that success to his wonderful coaches, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Javier Mendez. In a recent interview, the American coach spoke about the wonderful prospect of ‘The Eagle’s cousin. Mendez certainly spoke highly of his exceptional talent and expected a lot from him in the following years. The American coach also predicted the winner of the highly anticipated bantamweight title bout between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo.

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin has a prominent MMA career ahead of him

American MMA coach believes that Umar Nurmagomedov will earn himself a title shot in the bantamweight class. Because, he has seen the young talent improve significantly over the years, under the guidance of his big brother, Khabib Nurmagomedov. Also thinks that Umar will dominate Raoni Barcelos in their upcoming match-up for the UFC Fight Night on 14th Jan. at the UFC Apex arena, Las vegas.

Mendez said “he’s looking really really sharp. He’s firing on all cylinders”

“wrestling, kicking, boxing, IQ, conditioning, the kid has it all.”

And these skills will fetch him a title shot soon enough if he faces an opponent from the “Top 5”.

Khabib recently congratulated his friend and coach Javier Mendez for bagging the best coach award. Both of them have a great friendship that helps their disciples to excel.

Javier Mendez predicts the winner between two bantamweight titans

Javier Mendez also gave his prediction for the bantamweight title fight between Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo. The former MMA professional believes the fight is too close to call. And expects it to be “a battle of two great Champions”

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Mendez said, “In my book, (Henry Cejudo) probably the most accomplished fighting combat athlete of all time, being the Olympic gold medalist and two-time champion in the UFC.”

“I’m favoring Henry and it’s only because I know Henry too, and I really like Henry.”

But, he gives the edge to ‘Triple C’ over ‘funkmaster’, because of his impressive accolades and their friendship.

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Do you agree that Triple C will edge out Sterling to claim the bantamweight title? What are your thoughts on Khabib’s cousin?