Khabib Nurmagomedov's hurdles on the way to a UFC Championship have been well documented. Injuries, weight cuts and even observing Ramadan have all slowed down the process.
After missing over a year in the cage and being pulled from an interim title fight earlier this year, Khabib Nurmagomedov has enlisted the help of Tyler Minton to help his weight cut ahead of December's UFC 219 pay-per-view. Minton spoke to Fightful.com's James Lynch this week about his work with UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway before UFC 218.
Minron shared his story about how he first got on board with the UFC Feathwerweight Champion. Minton revealed that he went to Hawaii three weeks ago to help Holloway start his cut.
"I'd never even been to Hawaii. I was a little anxious at first, because you never know what a guy's gonna be like. I didn't know his weight, I didn't know anything about him. Five minutes into it, we got along. Everything I said this kid did. I could have told him to drink kerosene and he would have did it. We're way ahead of schedule actually, because he is so coachable," Minton told us. "The thing about Thanksgiving in Hawaii -- they go hard. I didn't want him to miss out on that, because he's a big family guy. I made him his own cornish game hen and stuffed it with apples and cranberries and gave him that."
Minton told us that being in Hawaii opened him up to new dishes that he'll likely never get to try out again. When asked about who he was working with next, Minton had several tasks this week, and discussed his partnership with Khabib.
"I'm here with Yancy, Eddie Alvarez this week. I'm home until Friday, then I fly out to California for Khabib and Daniel Cormier," Minton said before discussing the challenge of working with Khabib ahead of UFC 219. "Any time you can take a guy who normally struggles and we can make the weight and make him feel good doing it, it's good. I like learning about new people. Khabib is really different culturally."
UFC 218 takes place Saturday, December 2 from the Little Ceasers Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Fightful.com will have full, live coverage of the show, including a post-show podcast covering UFC 218, the TUF 26 Finale and Bellator 189.
