Muhammad Ali needled Joe Frazier mercilessly, painting him as the Great White Hope. A baffled Frazier protested that his trainer was African American, his manager was African American, and his friends were African American. But it stung, to the point that during a media event it got physical (the pair wrestled).
Former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor is borrowing a page from the Book of Ali, heading into their fight at UFC 229 on October 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Repeatedly, McGregor has referenced getting help from Russians. This is the latest – Auyb Magomadov, a BJJ black belt from Grozny, Chechnya.
The image of crossed sword and side by side Russian and Irish flags is a slight to Nurmagomedov. Magomadov received “How could you?” feedback from Russian fans online, and responded, a little baffled, in an interview with Denis Geyko for RT.
I was contacted by email, through my manager,” said Geyko. “They were searching for a guy for a sparring session. And that’s it. I arrived there, we did MMA sparring. That was what they wanted me for. So I did my job, and went back to Moscow.”
I felt like I needed to explain the situation. It was not about doing something wrong and making excuses. Not at all. It is my job, and I am not here to make friends, it is just the fight business. I need to feed my family, and become a better fighter – and I really learned a lot from Conor and his coaches. What if they call me again for a sparring session? – I will do it again. If you want to be a good fighter you need to train with good fighters. And it takes training with great fighters to become a great fighter. So if you have such a great chance you have to go for it. Despite all the negative feedback and haters.”
What I can say is he is a great, great professional, who can do anything. He is good in every aspect of the game. For sure you have some areas where you can be called an expert. He is an expert in striking, but he has pretty good wrestling, he has really good BJJ. He is a two-weight class world champion – what more can I say?
He is a really solid brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, for sure. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can do that. Because he is a great champion. So he is working in every area, he has really big experience in every aspect of the game. His BJJ, what can I say – he is training in Gi and No Gi. In-between the fights he trains a lot in Gi. That means that you put really big attention to your ground game, when you train in a Gi. I think he is really really good in BJJ. I think if whoever wins it won’t be a decision.
Conor is a very respectful and humble guy, without any ‘star fever.’ He was very respectful to me. He was just like a normal guy from the dojo. All the guys from his gym were respectful, were nice. His coach John [Kavanagh] is a nice person. Really nice head of this team, really respectful. It was great to know him.
“[McGregor’s] wrestling coach Sergey [Pikulskiy] is a nice guy. Nerijus [Gulbinas], his BJJ coach, is a nice guy. We were talking a lot , because they are from Soviet Union, so we are like relatives. So it was really nice to talk with them. How they see the world, you know? So it was a really nice experience.
“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting Conor to post that photo with me. But I wasn’t surprised with that negative reaction – I am an adult man. I would say it felt like a useful experience for me to see the negative side of the situation, to see all those haters around. I have learned a lot from that.”
If there is a silver lining for Magomadov, it’s that he has thought about starting MMA at some point, and based on the recent exposure, he’s already received some offers.
