Abdulmanap raised two P4P #1 fighters from childhood

[GrantB13]

Neither of them were #1 P4P though. They only ever artificially briefly become it when Jon Jones is being inactive and lose it whenever he's back.

Must suck that Jon's been champion since longer than either of them were ever even in the UFC.

Why does that suck?

 

[HHJ]

Neither of them were #1 P4P though. They only ever artificially briefly become it when Jon Jones is being inactive and lose it whenever he's back.

Must suck that Jon's been champion since longer than either of them were ever even in the UFC.

Wasnt jones artificially champion which is why they had to keep taking his belt away?

 

[Paladin]

Unprecedented achievement

View attachment 1010703

He didn't just take already great fighters and improved them like other coaches, he literally taught them how to fight and made them the best in the world. Absolute legend!

Fun fact: Khabib is the only fighter to snatch the P4P #1 spot from an Active Jon Jones

I’ll give you one better.. Mr and Mrs Jones bred three top tier athletes.. one who is a goat combatant.. although they are mired with controversy

 

[markg171]

Coach Javier says it's all because of Abdulmanap. No other MMA coach could have raised that group of kids to become what they became.

Even Javier admits that he wasn't the one to build them up, and he gives almost all the credit to Abdulmanap. In the boxing world it's accepted that the coaches who deserve the most credit for being great are those that've groomed an athlete from the amateur ranks all the way to champ status. Any coach that does that consistently has proven their greatness. Abdulmanap passed away by the time Islam and Usman became champs but the work he did is what put them on that path. Does anybody really think Islam would've been anywhere close to who he is if he had grown up in a different village and never met the Nurmagomedovs? Does anybody think Khabib and Islam wouldn't be as good as they are today if they had gone to Mark Henry's gym in Jersey instead of AKA (which Khabib almost did)? Javier made them better for sure, even guys like Cain/DC/Rockhold made them better, but don't kid yourself 90% of the credit belongs to Abdulmanap.

PS, this is not a diss on Javier, but have you seen his role in Islam's camp these days? He basically doesn't do anything besides holding mitts once in a while; he isn't even there for the majority of the camp, he has nothing to do with the fight plan, and he has virtually no input in the corner. Javier is a figure head "head coach", he's kept around because these guys are tremendously loyal and they have genuine affection for him as a father figure. He's like the king of england, has no actual authority on running the country but is the symbolic leader that the citizens feel deeply attached to emotionally.

Abdul's been dead for 3.5 years. At a certain point you need to stop attributing things to him instead of the guys actually currently training them and maintaining/improving what the previous coaches did. That's not disrespecting Abdul's legacy, just pointing out it's actually disrespecting Javier and Khabib who are the ones currently coaching them to their successes.

Javier especially as as has been pointed out that a lot of their success came from AKA teaching them striking. AKA's specialty is turning grapplers into great strikers, hence why these guys went there. Islam wouldn't be champion without his much improved striking where he can now beat standing guys like Charles and Volk. That's not from Abdul.

Why does that suck?

Why would it suck competing in the same era of a dude with 16 straight title wins and essentially an unbeaten 23 fight UFC streak?

Cause it vastly dwarfs everybody else's accomplishments and makes theirs trivial...?

 

[Harlekin]

Abdul did good, his guys would be champs if he were alive either way.

A tiny village in the mountains in a country being at least 30 years in war or terrorism.
Kids trained in fighting by very early age all day. I wonder if that's why they are so stoic and robotic

 

[GrantB13]

Abdul's been dead for 3.5 years. At a certain point you need to stop attributing things to him instead of the guys actually currently training them and maintaining/improving what the previous coaches did. That's not disrespecting Abdul's legacy, just pointing out it's actually disrespecting Javier and Khabib who are the ones currently coaching them to their successes.

Javier especially as as has been pointed out that a lot of their success came from AKA teaching them striking. AKA's specialty is turning grapplers into great strikers, hence why these guys went there. Islam wouldn't be champion without his much improved striking where he can now beat standing guys like Charles and Volk. That's not from Abdul.



Why would it suck competing in the same era of a dude with 16 straight title wins and essentially an unbeaten 23 fight UFC streak?

Cause it vastly dwarfs everybody else's accomplishments and makes theirs trivial...?

Eh. Doesn't have to.

 

[Sean Rhino]

Except Khabib had to ASK for that #1 P4P spot while announcing his retirement, and Dana gave it to him because he wanted to persuade him from retiring

Islam actually earned it

No, many people were talking about it before Nurmagomedov's last fight. Jones was unimpressive in his last fights against Reyes and Santos at that point in his career.



https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/10...hje-no-1-pound-for-pound-fighter-in-the-world

 

[jsbx45]

Pretty cool.

 

[markg171]

No, many people were talking about it before Nurmagomedov's last fight. Jones was unimpressive in his last fights against Reyes and Santos at that point in his career.

View attachment 1010802

https://www.mmafighting.com/2020/10...hje-no-1-pound-for-pound-fighter-in-the-world

Any particular reason you just screenshotted the title and didn't include anything Dana actually said for why Khabib should be over Jones?

In the past, the UFC figurehead has routinely referred to former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones as the top fighter in the sport regardless of weight class. But now, Nurmagomedov seems to be knocking on the door to take that title away from him.

“You know what I think of Jon Jones and we always talk about what Jon’s accomplished in his career,” White explained. “Look at how many fights this guy has and he’s still undefeated, and this is a nasty, nasty weight division.”

It was Dana's usual pre-fight bluster about how whoever's fighting next is the best despite it making no actual sense at all. Khabib deserves it because he's had so many fights and is still undefeated in a hard division so deserves it over Jones... who had the same amount of fights and over much stronger competition.

Further in the article Dana gives his real reason why he wants to suddenly promote Khabib:

“He’s one of the biggest stars in the sport,” White said. “Khabib’s videos have generated 222 million views. His content that features him, over 100 million video views just this year alone, just on Facebook. He’s broken records on Instagram. I could just rattle off numbers all day. He’s by far the No. 1 most played character in the video game globally. By a long shot.

“The numbers just go on and on. I could go on for days. The kid’s broken a lot of records.

Khabib was his most popular fighter therefore he wanted to promote him even more. Meanwhile Jones had vacated the title 2 months prior and seemed on his way out.

 

[PulsingJones]

Any particular reason you just screenshotted the title and didn't include anything Dana actually said for why Khabib should be over Jones?



It was Dana's usual pre-fight bluster about how whoever's fighting next is the best despite it making no actual sense at all. Khabib deserves it because he's had so many fights and is still undefeated in a hard division so deserves it over Jones... who had the same amount of fights and over much stronger competition.

Further in the article Dana gives his real reason why he wants to suddenly promote Khabib:



Khabib was his most popular fighter therefore he wanted to promote him even more. Meanwhile Jones had vacated the title 2 months prior and seemed on his way out.

Jones was eeking out split decisions against cripple MWs by that point, no one in his right mind would place him above Khabib who was tearing up Top 5 P4Ps like they were paper

It's not a GOAT list, it's a P4P list, evaluating current performance.

 

[markg171]

Jones was eeking out split decisions against cripple MWs by that point, no one in his right mind would place him above Khabib who was tearing up Top 5 P4Ps like they were paper

It's not a GOAT list, it's a P4P list, evaluating current performance.

Exactly what part of 15 straight title wins and a championship reign longer than Khabib was even in the UFC for wasn't current? He'd done it in one go.

Hell, you really wanna talk about current? Jon had just done 4 title wins, AKA the same amount Khabib had period, in only 14 months meanwhile Khabib took 30 months.