Ibragim Ibragimov agrees with Khabib Nurmagomedov’s feelings on Irish MMA.
Ibragimov, who is originally from Dagestan but fights out of Manchester, faces Ireland’s Kenny Mokhonoana on January 25 at PFL’s Champions Series Dubai.
Last week, UFC legend Khabib tore into the MMA scene in the country of Ireland, when comparing it to his native Dagestan as he previewed the blockbuster PFL card Ibragimov is set to fight on.
“Ireland don’t have fighters, brother… Paul Hughes and Conor [McGregor]. And who else?” Khabib said.
Dagestan’s Usman Nurmagomedov battles Ireland’s Paul Hughes in the main event on the card billed as ‘Dagestan vs Ireland 2’.
The circumstances of the fight are reminiscent of Conor McGregor‘s famous battle with Khabib in 2018 – a larger-than-life Irish fighter taking on an undefeated Dagestani champion.
Ibragimov, 20, fights on the main card with the aim of extending his undefeated professional MMA record to 9-0.
“He’s not wrong,” Ibragimov told talkSPORT.com, when asked about Nurmagomedov’s words.
“I’d say he was right, but let’s be honest in Ireland there’s a lot of good fighters still.
“There’s a lot of good guys, good level fighters, but they have not been on big platforms.
“Obviously, there’s a few guys like Ian Garry, Paul Hughes, and then a lot of us because I have a lot of teammates from Ireland in my gym.
“They all have the Irish blood. Even Brendan Loughnane [British PFL star], he has Irish blood.
“But in general, like Khabib said the levels are different. In Dagestan we have like so many good athletes, hungry guys who haven’t had a chance on the big stage – that’s the main thing.”
Ibragimov is part of a large group of Dagestani fighters who train at Khabib’s gym in Russia.
He has sparred with Usman, the Bellator lightweight champion, and his brother Umar Nurmagomedov, who takes on Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 311 on January 19 for bantamweight gold.
Ibragimov is also surrounded by some of the best fighters in the world on a daily basis, including UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.
“Khabib is a role model for us,” Ibragimov added. “He’s like a captain and everybody looks up to him, everybody wants to be like him.
“Everybody wants to be a world champion. So that’s the main thing.
“We have Khabib telling us what to do because he already achieved that.
“Now he can just share his knowledge, the experience with those like young guys coming up and looking up to him fighting.”
By the end of this month Dagestan could have two UFC champions if Makhachev can defend his belt against Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 311 and Umar defeats Dvalishvili on the same card.
They will also have another world champion in Usman, should be beat Hughes, and plenty of other world class talents including Ibragimov himself.
But this doesn’t come as a surprise to Ibragimov, who knows why Dagestan are currently dominating the MMA scene.
“We are doing something different,” Ibragimov said, when asked about what separates those from Dagestan from the rest of the world.
“That’s the thing, basically we all just love training. In training we’re punishing ourselves, squeezing everything out because we don’t have the chance not to.
“I think the main thing is to get better is by training. Constantly training and training, killing yourself in training, giving everything out.
“That’s the main thing. I think that’s the reason why we are the best because like most of the guys they like training.
“Khabib personally showed to the whole world that training is the heart of everything.”
Sport runs in the Ibragimov family as his three brothers Amir, Gazik and Muhammad are all products of Manchester United‘s youth team.
Ibragimov admitted that newly-appointed manager Man United Ruben Amorim has appeared at games while he has been watching his brother Amir for the U21s.
Amir scored the winning goal for England’s U16s against Italy in April and has rubbed shoulders with United’s legendary former manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ibragimov has laid out a plan and suggested that a world title win for himself, as well as his brother debuting for Man United’s first-team would ‘make history’ for his family name.