UFC 302 will take place on the night of June 1-2 in New Jersey (USA). The main event will feature a lightweight title fight between Russian belt holder Islam Makhachev and Dustin Porier.
For Makhachev it will be the third defense of the championship belt. The Russian has defeated Alex Volkanovski twice before and will now defend the belt against a lightweight for the first time. Dustin Porier was not considered the main challenger for the title, but the circumstances were in his favor. Justin Gaethje unexpectedly lost to Max Holloway, and Arman Tsarukyan said he would not have time to prepare for the tournament in June. So the chance went to Diamond, who brutally knocked out French prospect Benoit Saint-Denis.
Islam has been preparing with his team in the UAE. Two weeks before the fight, Khabib Nurmagomedov joined Makhachev’s camp and will assist him in the final part of his preparation.
“It’s much easier for me than Khabib because he showed me this road and I’m just following him. He’s retired, but he keeps pushing us. I realize the last 10 days of camp are going to be crazy,” Islam said on Henry Sehudo and Kamaru Usman’s YouTube podcast.
Khabib’s presence in camp is a wake-up call for Porier. For one thing, Nurmagomedov has already fought Dustin himself, undergoing tremendous training with his father. Khabib knows the keys to defeating Diamond and, of course, will share all this with Islam.
Secondly, Khabib’s very presence in the camp adds additional motivation to all the fighters and primarily Makhachev. Now Nurmagomedov is a coach for them, a follower of Abdulmanap. And, as the same Islam notes, jokes are not good with Khabib.
“This guy knows only one method: you need to plow. You have to change three sweat-soaked T-shirts per training session, fight for an hour every day. He doesn’t know any other way. When I was training at AKA, I told Cormier, “We need five rounds of sparring and three rounds of grappling, that’s enough.” But now… We have five rounds of sparring in the cage, three rounds on the mats, 10 rounds of fighting,” Islam revealed.
The information was shared by the publication – Чемпионат