“I can grapple” – Khabib Nurmagomedov’s fantastic response to claims of beating Israel Adesanya at 185-pound division
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Khabib Nurmagomedov talks about fighting Israel Adesanya at middleweight
Khabib Nurmagomedov responds to claims of beating the middleweight king Israel Adesanya in a 185-pound matchup.
Recently inducted Hall-of-Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov is tired of Israel Adesanya being disrespected by the MMA community. Following the former lightweight fighter’s weight gain post-retirement, fans and even his own manager, Ali Abdelaziz have been claiming that the fighter could beat champions of different weight divisions.
Recently Abdelaziz, the founder of Dominance MMA made a wild claim that former pound-for-pound champion Khabib could defeat Adesanya in a potential matchup at middleweight. Ahead of his induction ceremony, Khabib spoke to “mainevent” and gave his response to this claim. The fighter might be one of the most dominant fighters to ever grace the octagon but even he feels it is an extremely disrespectful claim to say that he would beat a dominant champion like Adesanya at his own weightclass.
Khabib Nurmagomedov laughs at the possibility of him fighting Israel Adesanya in the octagon
“No, because I am not going to fight in 185 and I am not going to fight with him. Right now this is his time. Don’t try to take his greatness. How many years he has been a middleweight champion? 3? 4? I think he deserves some respect,” said Khabib claiming it is disrespectful to even mention a lightweight beating Adesanya in the octagon. Israel has been in the UFC for the last four years and is already on his way to making his 6th title defense this weekend at UFC 276.
“Don’t treat him like a lightweight can beat him easily. If we want to grapple, we can grapple, like in the gym. Like I have with all these heavyweights, middleweights. I didn’t say this, people talk about this.” Though Khabib shuts down the possibility of him beating Adesanya inside the octagon, the doors to the gym are always open if “The Last Stylebender” wants to test his grappling skills.
Israel Adesanya has never been defeated inside the UFC octagon as a middleweight fighter and his only loss on his MMA record comes from a light heavyweight title match-up against Jan Blachowicz. How do you think Khabib and Izzy would match up in a grappling matchup?
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Prateek Athanur
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