Dagestan, a name now synonymous with wrestling, thanks to Khabib Nurmagomedov and his ilk, is dominating the MMA landscape. At the heart of their exploits is the famed Dagestani wrestling, which Craig Jones claims is not an original idea, but an inspired idea. Well, where did they get the inspiration from?

Craig Jones decided to share with the fight community some knowledge about the history of the Dagestan-based wrestling style. Well, according to the BJJ star, Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s wrestling style actually originated on the other side of the globe, and it was a French-Canadian legend who developed the kind of technique that laid their foundation. The BJJ standout used numbers to explain how Dagestan actually stole the “Canadian wrestling.”

Did Khabib Nurmagomedov and Co. steal their wrestling style from Georges St-Pierre?

Craig Jones claims the Dagestani style of wrestling is just an adaptation of Canadian wrestling, and at the forefront of that was UFC great Georges St-Pierre. Nevertheless, he gave credit where it was due and made sure fans knew how big and good the wrestling is out there. Russian stars hailing from Dagestan have won multiple medals in national, continental, and world championship events, including Olympic golds. “To be fair, Dagestan is statistically the greatest wrestling region on Earth,” Jones said on YouTube.

“By any metric, medal totals, medal density, world champions, or dominance in their own Russian national championships. Per capita, they produced more Olympic medals than anywhere else,” the BJJ star further stated. But despite so many wrestlers achieving big things in wrestling, the Australian grappler, the wrestlers who are MMA fighters, do not have the best metrics when it comes to the success rate of their takedown attempts up to the late 2010s.

According to Craig Jones, “something changed” when Georges St-Pierre made his way into MMA and impressed the whole world with his takedown accuracy. The Dagestani fighters studied his technique and replicated it, which, unsurprisingly, enhanced their efficiency and accuracy, with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev becoming two of the best wrestlers to adapt to ‘GSP’s style.

“So, naturally, you’d expect them to have the best takedowns in MMA, right? But they didn’t. Before GSP, Russians sat around 35 to 40% takedown accuracy. Then GSP happened, and suddenly, post-GSP, Dagestanis, Khabib sat at a 48% takedown accuracy, and Islam 53% takedown accuracy. Something changed,” Craig Jones asserted. “They entered the modern era of technology. And that first VHS tape that they watched was GSP taking down the heavily credentialed Josh Koschek. GSP broke every golden rule of wrestling. He bent at the hips. He had a short penetration step, and he was shooting off the jab.”

Without a doubt, he will be going through all of this while helping prepare Jack Della Maddalena for his upcoming title defense against Islam Makhachev at UFC 322. The former lightweight champ is a little different from Khabib in that he uses inside trips to get his opponents down just as much as he shoots for takedowns.

Jones has the wealth of experience from preparing Alexander Volkanovski against Makhachev; surely that will help JDM, too. Besides, Makhachev recently told Brett Okamoto of ESPN that JDM has weak takedown defense, and that would play to his advantage. Does that mean he will bring a more GSP-like fighting style to Madison Square Garden?

Khabib Nurmagomedov has always been praiseful of Georges St-Pierre. So it may not be wrong to assume that he may have taken a page or two from the Canadian legend’s book. But people often wonder what it would have been like if these two legends had fought each other. And while we are unlikely to get that fight, ‘GSP’ once revealed his tactics to defeat ‘The Eagle’.

How would St-Pierre vs. Khabib have panned out?

Khabib Nurmagomedov is regarded as arguably the best wrestling-based fighter the UFC has ever seen. According to George St-Pierre, he matched the 29-0 legend on the ground, and that’s what he would have done if he had fought him. But he believes Khabib may get an edge if the duo fight near the fence of the Octagon, and because of that, St-Pierre believes keeping the fight in the middle of the cage, where Max Holloway likes to point, would be the best course of action to beat the Dagestan legend.

“My strategy against Khabib would have been to keep the fight in the middle and not be afraid to go for takedowns,” Georges St-Pierre said last year during an interview. ” I would’ve maybe been one of the only guys who would’ve tried to take him down. I’ve put down everyone that I’ve fought.. I think I would’ve beat him because if he would’ve come to put pressure on me, I would’ve put him down. I would have the confidence to try to go for a takedown.”

This is an accurate observation from the former two-division champion. Khabib did his best work against the cage. He submitted all three of his last UFC opponents near the cage. And he always shot for the takedown when his opponents had their backs against the cage. Remember UFC 229 when he first shot for the takedown on McGregor? The Irishman almost ended up on top in that scramble, which happened in the center of the Octagon. He had no answer, however, when the fight happened against the cage.

Usually, fighters use the cage to their advantage when trying to get back up to their feet. But Khabib was an expert at tying up their legs as soon as he took them down, which made sure they stayed down, even against the cage. Surely, a master tactician like GSP would have noticed these things.

The question of who wins between these two legends was once answered by AI, and it was ‘The Eagle’ who got the nod to beat ‘GSP’. But coming back to the most important question at hand, after hearing what Craig Jones had to say, do you think Khabib and Co.’s wrestling style is based on Georges St-Pierre’s? Drop your comments below.