Khabib Nurmagomedov has been a hugely dominant fighter and also has had quite the winning streak as a coach, but he revealed a lot about himself when one of his charges recently lost to Sergio Pettis. This happened to Magomed Magomedov, who ended up on the wrong end of a spinning back elbow KO loss to Pettis when the two fought at PFL Dubai earlier this month.
In the aftermath, there was an abundance of respect shown from the Nurmagamedov team, and when touching on his interaction with Khabib Nurmagamedov after the Magomedov contest, Pettis said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Khabib is an awesome man, great athlete in general. Came up to me right after, shook my hand, he was like ‘good job on the win and tell your brother I say hello,’ you know. Just a friendly guy. It was cool to see how they interact with one another, the Dagestani people, the athletes over there.”
“It reminds me of how my team is at home. They got a just; happy, smiling, hardworking, very proud of one another, very supportive towards one another. So, it was cool to see all that, man. Just to be in opposing corners, that was a big one for me.”
“To have Khabib in someone’s corner and to beat one of his students, it was definitely a big one for me. Just a memorable moment forever. But yeah, man, those guys are awesome. Great athletes over there.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov, Sergio Pettis, and the art of compartmentalizing
Khabib Nurmagomedov showed a great ability to compartmentalize things by showing respect as a coach when he likely was hurting for his fighter. Pettis has also shown an ability to compartmentalize things in terms of separating training room work compared to fighting in live competition.
This has been reflected by Pettis by fighting long-time teammate Raufeon Stots and also extending an offer to his recent opponent, Magomed Magomedov, to train with him someday. When touching upon those pieces about how beneficial it has been for him to compartmentalize things in this sort of way, Pettis stated [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“I’ve been pretty lucky to do that, especially with someone like Raufeon Stots because he’s a great athlete, a great guy, a great teammate, great father. So both of us, we put all that aside, just the teammate stuff and we’re both supporting our family.”
“We’re like it’s business at the end of the day. You’re next and I’m next. So, we’ll keep it respectful and keep it the way we’ve always been, you know, good friends and may the best man win. So, it was cool to have that with Raufeon, even with Magomed [Magomedov], for sure.”
“You know, I’m a big fan of his style and I felt his style. I’m like that stuff works. I want to go and learn it and just learning different cultures and different styles. It’d be awesome to have an invite over there and just see how their world is and get some perspective for my game.”
