Daniel Cormier Breaks Down Nurmagomedov's Wrestling Technique From UFC 229

At UFC 229, Khabib Nurmagomedov continued to showcase just how effective his wrestling and top control game is, especially against a striker of the caliber of his opponent, Conor McGregor. Nurmagomedov controlled the fight from start to finish, smothering his opponent before eventually securing a neck crank in the fourth round to retain his Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight belt.

UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier, who was sitting Octagon-side on the night, said his American Kickboxing Academy teammate executed his game plan against McGregor flawlessly while nullifying any attack made by the Irishman.

Cormier was a recent guest on “The MMA Hour” and spoke to host Luke Thomas about the different high-level wrestling techniques Nurmagomedov used on the night to outsmart his opponent. “I thought Khabib fought beautifully,” Cormier said. “I thought he implemented the gameplan that he wanted to implement, fought the way that he wanted to fight and did exactly what he needed to do. I thought he fought beautifully.”

While the Irishman doesn’t have the wrestling credentials of the undefeated champion, he defended four of Nurmagomedov’s seven takedown attempts, which impressed Cormier:

“Honestly man, that first takedown, I was like wow, he really made [Nurmagomedov] work for this takedown,” Cormier said. “Because this is what we say at AKA — we try to get you lost in the sauce. We want to get you lost in the sauce, right? Like, when we’re on a leg, we want to give you one [takedown attempt]; okay, you’ll defend; two, you’ll defend; three, then you start going, ‘okay, wait a minute,’ then you start to get lost. You get lost in all the different transitions, from to move to move to move, and eventually we get you down. And once we get you down, obviously it’s very difficult to get back up.

“[McGregor] didn’t get lost in it,” Cormier added. “Like, Khabib had to go to level four to get that first takedown. He went high crotch, he went crackdown, he went ‘try to get the angle,’ he tried to run the pipe, then he actually had to go to his knees, look across the back to get to a double just to get Conor down the first time. Conor didn’t get lost. He really did a good job, and that’s why if you’re Team McGregor, there’s cause for concern, because I don’t know if he could do that any better and he still got beat in the way that he got beat.

“That’s why, I think if you’re Team McGregor, you’d be concerned about a fight with Nurmagomedov, because I don’t think he could defend any better,” Cormier continued. “I thought was as good as [he could do], because he did a good job and I don’t know if he could do it any better … because then [Nurmagomedov] is going to go to level five, and he going to go to level six, and he’s going to just keep putting different things behind each other until eventually you kinda can’t keep up. That’s what Henry Cejudo does. That’s what he did to DJ a couple times to get those takedowns.

“You know who did it really good was Tatiana Suarez. Tatiana shoots a double leg on Carla Esparza knowing Carla was going to defend it. She knew. Like, ‘There’s no way I’m just going to take this girl down. She’s been wrestling too long.’ She shot a double leg, not for that first shot. She shot that double leg to get Carla to defend, drop her hands, and when Carla dropped her hands, arm drag, now Carla’s on the bottom. The first shot was never the intent. That’s why my takedown offense is like 45 percent. I don’t care, I’m just throwing shots at you until eventually I’ll grab one of them. I’m just throwing different things at you until I get the reaction I want, then I can go to my true finish.”

Cormier said he can relate to the post-fight brawl which saw Nurmagomedov jump into the crowd and attack McGregor’s jiu-jitsu coach Dillon Danis, referencing his own past indiscretions with his longtime rival Jon Jones. While McGregor’s actions were all part of the promotion to build hype for a fight, Cormier believes it only motivated Nurmagomedov even more to silence him.

“I think, Conor, he was building a fight, and there was just a little bit of a difference in the approach,” Cormier said.

“When he was building the fight and kinda going home going, ‘Okay, yeah, I think that might’ve gotten him a little bit,’ or, ‘that got under his skin,’ the whole time it’s causing this guy (Nurmagomedov) to just go, ‘God, I hate him. Man, I can’t stand this dude. I want to hurt him,’ then going back to the gym and training harder and more,” Cormier said. “So, that’s where the difference lies. It’s like, [Jones and I] never regretted anything we said to each other or about each other, and it was okay if it just continued to escalate.”