Khabib Nurmagomedov: "Judo is class"

At a media day event organized by Ali Abdelaziz’s Dominance MMA, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov expressed some interesting thoughts about judo.

PFL women’s lightweight champion Kayla Harrison approached Nurmagomedov and asked him: “Which is better, judo or wrestling?” Khabib responded: “I love wrestling, but … [in] my opinion, judo is class.”

Part of that was a bit of trolling, given the presence of former Olympic gold medalist in freestyle wrestling – and current UFC bantamweight champion – Henry Cejudo. At a press conference of the same event, Khabib interrupted Cejudo to say: “Hey, here someone has two Olympic gold medals. Calm down, please,” referring to Harrison, who won gold in judo at London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Khabib’s father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, holds the title of “Master of Sport” in judo, as well as in sambo and freestyle wrestling. Khabib started training judo as a youth before moving on to sambo, in which he would go on to win two world championships in 2009 and 2010.

However, he still has a deep affinity for judo, as seen in his answer to Harrison’s question as well as his visit to the Paris Saint-Germain judo club in 2018: