Team Khabib Head Coach Takes Credit For Khabib & Co.’s Absolute Stance on Winning With ‘Ugly’ Tactics

In combat, fighting spirit is everything. The readiness to fight dictates the success of an athlete. But then, when it’s combat sports, fighting spirit counts, but fight IQ takes center stage. Preparing for your opponent, formulating strategies, and executing gameplays require a fair bit of thinking. That’s where the importance of a head coach comes in—to help a fighter mentally navigate their fights, apart from providing them with the essential tools. In the world of MMA and UFC, one name that comes to mind while talking about the success of coaches is none other than Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s coach, Javier Mendez.

Team Khabib has seldom disappointed when it comes to performing inside the MMA cage. Be it the UFC, Bellator, or the PFL, the fighters from the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) have shined bright through the ages. While Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev come to mind, one mustn’t forget people like former champions Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier, and Luke Rockhold; all of whom found immense success training under the watchful eyes of Mendez. What was the secret? Was it fighting spirit? Heart? Or being extremely technical? True for all of these, but for Javier Mendez, it’s about cultivating a ‘winning mindset.’

While speaking to Mike Perry, Mac Mally, and Ice Bagz at the Overdogs Podcast, the AKA coach doubled down on the most important aspect of fighting: “The mentality of winning, honestly, I think it came from me more than anything. Because I am the master at winning at the number one cost. Number two is entertaining. I don’t believe in entertainment first, I believe in winning first. Because if you are the winner, I’ll give you guys an example of what I’m talking about.”

He then told a story about Scott Coker, the former CEO of Strikeforce and president of Bellator MMA, who was a mentor and friend of Javier Mendez. He stated how he got involved with one of his pupils named Bobby Southworth who ended up becoming the Strikeforce light heavyweight world champion. However, Coker wasn’t too fond of the 10-6 (1 NC) MMA fighter. The catch? Despite disliking him, the former CEO could not cut him off since he was a winner, even if he might not have entertained as much.

Mendez continued, “So it was Bobby Southworth, and Scott Coker who did not like Bobby. He said, ‘He’s boring, he sucks. You know I want to cut him’. But guess what? He wasn’t losing, so you can’t cut him, right? Otherwise, Bobby would have been cut. The winning part was you can cut him as long as you keep winning, once you lose, oh boy, it could be over.” So he gave this analogy to show why winning was more important than being an entertainer in the combat sports world.

He further added, “Man, if I lose this fight because I want to entertain the fans, the promoter is going to get rid of me because he needs to make money, and that’s his job, and my job is to keep my job. When you explain it to somebody like that. The fighter will go, ‘no, I’m gonna get the win first. Then I’m gonna be exciting. But if I get to win and I will be ugly. Then let it be ugly because I’ve got another day and I’ve got a job.”

So no matter how the fight looks, boring or otherwise, winning is everything, as per Mendez. He gave similar advice to Umar Nurmagomedov before his fight against Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 305. The golden rule? Act like a winner.

Team Khabib coach told Umar the importance of acting like a winner

Team Khabib is unstoppable, but sometimes there are setbacks that even the best of fighters have to face. This is exactly something that happened after ‘Young Eagle’ lost his fight at UFC 311 against Merab Dvalishvili. The bantamweight champion, in his first title defense, put Umar on the back-foot and catapulted himself to a unanimous decision victory.

However, Mendez shared what advice he had given to his pupil before the fight. He said, “What we did with Umar is, I was working with him on after each round. Put your head up, act like the winner. You’ve got to act like the winner, is you know you cannot pretend like oh you won that round, but you got your head down. Judges look at that. You know whether they do realize it or not, judges look at that and they judge against you because if it’s a close round and they see you gasping for air and the other guys walking around like King Kong, their mind gets you know, cuz there’s a lot of pressure on the judge. A lot of pressure.”

However, he complimented the Georgian and said that this trait was pulled off well by him. Mendez said, “So image is extremely important and Merab is fantastic at that…” So for Mendez, winning is definitely important, but so is maintaining an image inside the Octagon.

What do you think of Mendez’s ‘winning mentality’ approach? Do you agree with him? Share your thoughts in the comments below.