Khabib Nurmagomedov's Coach On Conor McGregor Fight, Miesha Tate On Donald Cerrone, Darren Till
- Most believed the experience and big-fight past of Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone would be too much for Darren Till to overcome. However, the brash 24-year-old proved them all wrong when he scored a finish over the former UFC title challenger to earn his upcoming championship match with Tyron Woodley.
Till will take on Woodley next Saturday at UFC 228 live on pay-per-view. The card also features Valentina Shevchenko challenging Nicco Montano for the female flyweight belt.
Check out a replay of Till's win over Cerrone in the video above.
- Miesha Tate feels like the situation playing out at JacksonWink MMA between Donald Cerrone and Mike Winkeljohn is similar to an incident from a few years back involving Rashad Evans and Jon Jones. Cerrone questioned Winkeljohn's involvement with the gym after bringing in Mike Perry, who "Cowboy" meets later this year.
"This is reminiscent," Tate said during MMA Tonight on SiriusXM Fight Nation (thanks to MMA Fighting for transcribing). "I feel like we've heard this story about this camp before when it was Rashad Evans and him feeling like he was pushed out of the spot with Jon Jones coming in.
"What I think is not cool, if it had been someone that had been training there like Carlos Condit or someone like that who had been training there a long time and they were gonna fight each other and both had that mutual respect, and mutual foundation at that gym, that's different. But when the new guy is coming in and he's like, 'I wanna fight Cowboy' and he comes to Cowboy's gym, I think that the right thing to do by the gym – I think there's some loyalty that should be towards Cowboy. He's been there a really, really long time."
Cerrone has started his own gym on his ranch, bringing in fighters to prepare for his fights and others. Winkeljohn is expected to work with Perry in preparation for the bout in November.
- Javier Mendez has worked with some of the best fighters in the world while serving as the head coach of American Kickboxing Academy including Daniel Cormier, Cain Velasquez and Luke Rockhold. But right now, he feels as if UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov might be the best of the best. Nurmagomedov defends his title against Conor McGregor next month at UFC 229.
"I'm of the belief that Khabib's mental strength is so strong that I personally feel that he's never going to lose," Mendez said while appearing on Niall McGrath's Eurobash Podcast. "I really don't ? I don't think he's ever going to lose. He's going to find whatever he needs to do to win, whether he does it my way or does it his way, he's going to find a way to win and that's just what he does."
Nurmagomedov and McGregor have been feuding for months and nearly came to blows backstage earlier this year in New Jersey. McGregor stormed the Barclays Center looking for Nurmagomedov after he and his team confronted a member of McGregor's fight camp.