Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments about Conor McGregor after UFC 257 clarified

Khabib Nurmagomedov's coach Javier Mendez has explained the undefeated Dagestani fighter's comments about Conor McGregor's devastating loss against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.

Following McGregor's shocking defeat at the hands of Poirier, Khabib Nurmagomedov took to Twitter to tell the Irishman that he lost because he changed his team and his sparring partners ahead of the fight. Nurmagomedov said that McGregor was sparring with 'little kids far away from reality', possibly hinting at the southpaw's training camp in Portugal.

This is what happened, when you change your team, leave the sparring partners who made you a champion and sparring with little kids, far away from reality.

— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) January 24, 2021

In a recent interaction with Submission Radio, Javier Mendez explained what Nurmagomedov actually wanted to say is that McGregor didn't need to tinker with an already successful team for his training camp this time around.

Echoing Khabib Nurmagomedov's sentiments, Mendez said that the former two-division champion didn't need to change his team ahead of the fight even though nothing was wrong with the team. He said that McGregor needn't have traveled to Portugal to train and should have trained where he usually trains in Dublin instead.

"When you make changes in camp, when things weren't broken, why change it? I heard he went to Portugal or something like that for training. Well, what was wrong with where he is always training? I don't know, it just looks like he made a lot of changes and why change things that aren't broken is all I have to say."

Mendez said that he saw a few of the video clips and pictures from McGregor's training camp on social media and noticed that he was training with a different group of people than the ones that are normally seen around him.

"There's no need to change things that are working and that's what I am thinking. I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that's what I'm thinking. I didn't see the regular situation. I saw different people who I didn't see before in the group of people that are normally with him."

"If that's what happened (McGregor changing his team), I 100% echo [Khabib Nurmagomedov's] statements. It's a big no-no. If that's what happened. I don't know because I wasn't in his training camp."

Were Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments about McGregor changing his team entirely true?

Khabib Nurmagomedov was possibly referring to McGregor's new conditioning, nutrition, and training system which he developed with the makers of his FAST fitness program in Lagos, Portugal.

McGregor set up his training camp in Lagos for the fight against Poirier. His physical transformation at 155 pounds with the new conditioning and training system was also talked about a lot ahead of the fight.

However, Conor McGregor's training camp was still led by his longtime coaches, including head coach John Kavanagh and striking coach Owen Roddy and they were also cornering the Irishman during the fight.