Islam Makhachev has admitted he didn't always believe when Khabib Nurmagomedov 's father told him he would be a world champion in the future.
Makhachev, 30, has the chance to become a UFC champion in October as he faces Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title. Oliveira was supposed to be making the third defence of his belt at the event, but he was stripped of the title after missing weight for his UFC 274 clash against Justin Gaethje in May, which he won by first-round submission.
Nurmagomedov's late father Abdulmanap, who sadly passed away two years ago, used to serve as one of Makhachev's head coaches and he always told Makhachev he would be a UFC champion and follow in Nurmagomedov's footsteps once he leaves the sport. Makhachev now has the chance to capture the belt that the now-retired Nurmagomedov defended three times.
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"Abdulmanap always told me when I was young that I was going to be champion, but at that time I was so young so I thought it was going to be hard for me," Makhachev told ESPN. "In 2017, he told me [again] 'your going to be champion' and at that moment I thought 'How?' because I'm from Russia and we don't have many champions from there.
""This man [Abdulmanap] had crazy experience in this sport. He had more than 25 world champions and he knows when guys come to the gym whether he's going to have champion heart, or if he's going to come to live. Things have changed as I've spent years in the US training with high-level fighters, after all of this has happened my mind has changed. I know I deserve and I have all the skills to win the championship belt."
Oliveira, who has the most finishes in UFC history, predicts that Makhachev's arrogance will "kill him" when they meet on October 22. Both men are on lengthy win streaks in the promotion and despite Oliveira being the former champion, he is a considerable underdog against Makhachev.
Makhachev said of the Brazilian: "He's never said my name, he's called everyone out but me. I'm a hard fight for everybody, I have always the same plan for everybody. Take them down, hold them, everybody knows this. This guy has a good win streak, I have a good win streak. That's what they put us together and it's a very interesting fight."
