UFC fans have waxed lyrical over Khabib Nurmagomedov’s dad Abdulmanap after a video of him talking about Jon Jones re-emerged.
The Eagle’s legendary father passed away three years ago at the age of 57 after complications caused by COVID-19.
He was a well-respected figure in the MMA community, having trained a total of 18 world champions as a coach – including Islam Makhachev and Movlid Khaybulaev.
His knowledge of the sport wasn’t just limited to his own fighters, however.
In 2016, he took part in a sitdown chat with Red Corner MMA, where he was asked for his opinion on Jones, who is widely regarded as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time.
Jon Jones news – Khabib Nurmagomedov’s dad Abdulmanap was right all along
An excerpt of that interview was reshared by the Twitter account ‘The Fight Bubble’ as a tribute to Abdulmanap.
The clip shows the great man giving his thoughts on Jones’ potential move to heavyweight, and it has aged like fine wine after his victory over Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 last weekend.
He said: “Jon Jones got his talent from God, not from Greg Jackson.
“Greg Jackson is a good striking coach. Don’t confuse those two things.
“Jon Jones is No.1 out of all fighters. Maybe not in terms of behaviour or the law or anything else. I’m confident that he will wipe out the top-five heavyweights.
“Except for two guys. Two guys are uncertain. That’s my expert opinion.”
WATCH: Khabib Nurmagomedov’s dad Abdulmanap was right all along about Jon Jones
Check out the video below…
The American, 35, claimed the vacant heavyweight title at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, courtesy of a stunning first-round submission over the Frenchman.
And UFC president Dana White couldn’t stop singing his praises after the fight.
“Let’s just put it this way: There’s no doubt that Jon Jones is special,” he said at the UFC 285 post-fight press conference. “He’s the greatest of all time.
“He’s undefeated, he’s never lost a fight ever in the UFC, he’s fought all the best competition out there, but dealing with him is like dealing with an artist is the best way to explain it. I don’t know what’s going to happen from here on out. I’m just happy we got to see what we saw tonight.
“And many of us that have been in the game for a long time, some of you might disagree, some of you might agree, I’m a big believer in ring rust and what it does. We didn’t even get to see any ring rust. Who knows if there was any ring rust tonight.
“He just went in there and literally made it look like nothing, like it was the easiest thing in the world for him to do. He’s a total freak of nature and he’s the best ever.”
