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- Oct 28, 2019
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I've translated the snippet of the interview in Russian.
Javier Mendez:
We've got Islam Makhachev, he will be the next champion and I don't even want to hear any arguments about it. Keep giving him fights and he will be destroying people. I've never told anyone, but he is the only fighter in the history of AKA who, on a regular basis, has been able to win rounds against Khabib in sparring practices. Not a whole practice, but separate rounds. He is by far the hardest Khabib's opponent in the gym.
Yeah, it's hard to get a fight for Islam, everybody's avoiding him because of how good he is. Don't forget that Islam is a world combat sambo champion as well as Khabib, but they are different in terms of striking skills. Here's a thing, Khabib has been working on his striking only with me, i.e. when he was at home he didn't pay attention to it at all. On the other hand Islam has been working on striking with me and other coaches. He's been constantly bettering his striking technique, kicks and everything else. In wrestling, judo and jiu-jitsu Khabib and Islam are roughly equal, but when it comes to striking Islam has stepped up and is way ahead of Khabib. Everytime he comes to us, I can see he's better as a kicker, boxer, his knee strikes have improved. Of course I can't say that Islam is better on the ground than Khabib, but he has the potential to become the second best ground fighter after Khabib.
Javier Mendez:
We've got Islam Makhachev, he will be the next champion and I don't even want to hear any arguments about it. Keep giving him fights and he will be destroying people. I've never told anyone, but he is the only fighter in the history of AKA who, on a regular basis, has been able to win rounds against Khabib in sparring practices. Not a whole practice, but separate rounds. He is by far the hardest Khabib's opponent in the gym.
Yeah, it's hard to get a fight for Islam, everybody's avoiding him because of how good he is. Don't forget that Islam is a world combat sambo champion as well as Khabib, but they are different in terms of striking skills. Here's a thing, Khabib has been working on his striking only with me, i.e. when he was at home he didn't pay attention to it at all. On the other hand Islam has been working on striking with me and other coaches. He's been constantly bettering his striking technique, kicks and everything else. In wrestling, judo and jiu-jitsu Khabib and Islam are roughly equal, but when it comes to striking Islam has stepped up and is way ahead of Khabib. Everytime he comes to us, I can see he's better as a kicker, boxer, his knee strikes have improved. Of course I can't say that Islam is better on the ground than Khabib, but he has the potential to become the second best ground fighter after Khabib.
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