“Sometimes less is more,” Max Holloway once said of training and sparring. The logic was simple. Don’t push yourself to the point where you give your best rounds in training and then underperform on fight night. And according to Demetrious Johnson, that might be the Achilles Heel for Team Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Demetrious Johnson recently revealed why even the elite fighters from Dagestan sometimes lose. It’s not about technique or strength but a subtle factor that can tip the fight, often influenced by the intensity of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s coaching methods, where recovery days usually turn into full-blown training marathons. Fighters like Khabib and Islam Makhachev are nearly unstoppable in grappling exchanges, thanks to elite conditioning and discipline. However, their intense style can backfire if opponents exploit pacing or force mistakes, showing that even the best aren’t invincible.

Demetrious Johnson debates Dagestani grapplers’ strengths and the myth of overtraining

“So the fight between Umar and Figgy, it’s gonna come down to the grappling, right? Umar’s gonna take him down. It’s gonna be a grappling exchange. Figgy’s a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In his last fight, he got beat by Cory Sandhagen. He blew his knee out from that 50-50 position. But if I have to pick one, I’m going Umar to go right off. Those guys trained so hard. The only reason why I feel like those guys do lose is if someone’s better than them. But if they gas out because they’re overtrained, they f—ing train all the time.”

The upcoming UFC 324 bout against Deiveson Figueiredo is the next step in Umar Nurmagomedov’s redemption tour. Last January, at UFC 311, we witnessed the unthinkable when Merab Dvalishvili steamrolled through a visibly exhausted Umar. That was his first-ever career loss.

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Though he returned to winning ways against Mario Bautista at UFC 321, there were a few asterisks. Bautista put up a strong challenge, even catching Umar with a knee to the head once. Khabib’s cousin survived with sheer will and grappling prowess, but the legendary Dagestani dominance was not on display. Will he be able to bring it back against a former world champion in ‘Figgy’?

Johnson highlights that these fighters’ intense training is both their greatest strength and potential weakness. Even elite grapplers like Umar and Figgy can falter if overtraining leads to fatigue, but their relentless work ethic usually keeps them ahead of the competition. Overtraining might explain rare losses, but Dagestani champions prove otherwise. And the solution to their problem is rather simple.

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s simple fix for the gruelling Dagestani training regimen

The brutal conditioning and the intensive training regimens of Dagestani fighters have become the talk of the town, and nobody can match the level to which they push their bodies and minds. The grapplers in the UFC usually tire out all the ones who want to take their fight to the ground with the help of this discipline. Among them are names like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev, and Umar Nurmagomedov.

In training, Khabib recommends good sleep for recovery. No amount of supplements can substitute sleep, as per the undefeated former champion.

“Between trainings, you have to recover. A lot of people don’t understand what recovery is. A lot of people call it, like: massage, supplements… [But] for me, recovery is sleep. Most important thing: between trainings, like, at least 2-3 hours. All my life, I was like daytime – I was sleeping. Like, from maybe 11 to 1, maybe 12 to 2, maybe 2 to 4… You know, between trainings you have to sleep because you train so hard; morning for 2 hour and night for 2 and a half [hours]… You need rest.”

Even the greatest can encounter difficulties if the training is too much, the pace is too intense, or the weight cuts are too extreme. The recent fights are proof of how the factors can impact the outcome. Apart from Umar’s outings last year, Tagir Ulanbekov’s defeat by Kyoji Horiguchi can be blamed on a harsh weight cut; thus, the case of extreme preparation backfiring.

Even Khabib Nurmagomedov’s iconic weight-cutting tactics, which turn up in every Dagestani training camp, push fighters over the edge, and can also lead to injuries and long-term wear. Dagestani fighters’ discipline and intensity are almost unmatched in the world of MMA. Their training has created grapplers who are nearly impossible to beat, but the extreme conditioning and drastic weight cuts have kept the fighters from being completely healthy and ready.