Ali Abdelaziz names the fighter closest to "Khabib Nurmagomedov's dominance," and it's not Islam Makhachev
Ali Abdelaziz, former manager of Khabib Nurmagomedov, recently named the fighter that he believes is the closest representation of 'The Eagle' currently in the UFC.
The Dominance MMA CEO has managed and currently manages some of the biggest fighters in MMA. Alongside Nurmagomedov, Abdelaziz also represents fighters such as Islam Makhachev, Henry Cejudo and Justin Gaethje.
For Abdelaziz, the gold standard of a fighter has always been Khabib Nurmagomedov. The former 155-pound kingpin dominated almost every fight throughout his career, hanging up his gloves in 2020 with a staggering 29-0 record.
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Abdelaziz was asked about Nurmagomedov's legacy and whether or not he believes a fighter could come close to matching it.
While Khabib Nurmagomedov would perhaps state that Islam Makhachev is the answer to that question, Abdelaziz has opted to throw a different name into the mix.
According to the MMA manager, 'The Eagle's' cousin, UFC bantamweight Umar Nurmagomedov (16-0), is the closest to matching his dominance:
"Islam lost, Khabib never lost. Islam might be all the way technically better, but dominance, I don't think anybody can be as dominant as Khabib... A lot of guys lost. Khabib never even have one blood leave his body. When you have a guy who never bled in 29 fights, it's very hard to match him. It's a very tall order to match him. It's almost impossible."
He continued:
"The guy who is closer to Khabib than anybody is Umar. I truly believe Umar is the closest to Khabib's dominance."
Catch Ali Abdelaziz's comments here (0:20):
Khabib Nurmagomedov details Islam Makhachev's 100-day training camp for UFC 294
Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight title against Alexander Volkanovski for the second time at UFC 294. The Australian stepped in on short notice to replace Charles Oliveira, who withdrew through injury.
Makhachev has worked tirelessly for almost a third of the year to prepare for his title defense. Speaking on a recent episode of the UFC Embedded series, Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed just how serious Makhachev and the team are taking the fight:
"When it was like 100 day before the fight, Islam [Makhachev] begin train hard since this day. Today was last hard sparring day, but all hard work is finished."
In regards to the fight plan, he continued:
"Yeah, we're gonna change some things but goal is same. Same goal, same place [Abu Dhabi], but I think Islam [Makhachev] have more motivation. Islam is warrior. When he go to the cage, he always fight, he's going to go deep ocean, doesn't matter how deep, he's ready for the ocean. And, Inshallah, he's gonna be 'and still'."
Catch Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments here (6:50):