Bryan Battle Used to Smoke Up With Khabib Nurmagomedov and the Bear “Back in the Day”
Back in the day, Bryan Battle loved to sick back, smoke a J, and watch Khabib Nurmagomedov wrestle bears.
During a recent appearance on the JAXXON podcast with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, ‘The Butcher’ revealed that one of his favorite activities used to consist of hanging out on his porch while watching a video clip of a young Nurmagomedov wrestling wild bears alongside his father and legendary coach, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
“I used to just sit on my porch and, like, back in the day—I don’t do this anymore—but back in the day, I would smoke weed and just sit there and watch the video of him wrestling the bear as a baby,” Battle said. “Just sitting there, just like… I thought that sh*t was the funniest sh*t in the world, you know what I’m saying? He’s just sitting there as, like, a little kid with a f*cking bear, you know what I’m saying?”
Check out the video below:
Khabib Wrestled His Way to the top of MMA
Nurmagomedov is considered by many to be one of if not the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. During his 12-year career, ‘The Eagle’ captured the UFC lightweight world title and notched a trio of highlight-reel finishes against the likes of Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, and Justin Gaethje.
Introducing American MMA fans to the dominant style of Dagestani wrestling, Nurmagomedov went an incredible 29-0 with more than a third of his wins coming via submission.
Sadly, Nurmagomedov walked away from the sport in 2020 following his third defense of the 155-pound crown. Since then, he has coached his protege, Islam Makhachev, to the lightweight title and will be in the corner of his cousin Umar Nurmagomedov who challenges Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight championship at UFC 311 on January 18.
As for Bryan Battle, the Missouri native is riding a four-fight win streak with victories over Gabe Green, AJ Fletcher, Kevin Jousset, and Randy Brown. Battle’s win over Brown at UFC 310 moved him to 7-1 under the promotional banner and 12-2 overall.
