Chael Sonnen sides with Khabib Nurmagomedov's Dagestan superiority claims over Ireland, dismissing Darren Till's criticism: "It might offend you"

Khabib Nurmagomedov recently claimed that Dagestan has had a better track record in MMA than Ireland. Despite ruffling some feathers, his statement has received backing from UFC legend Chael Sonnen, who took to Instagram with a clip of him siding with 'The Eagle.'

Not only did Sonnen side with Nurmagomedov, he also countered the recent response issued by Darren Till, who misinterpreted the lightweight great's claim. He said:

"I heard Khabib's interview. I then read Darren's rebuke of the comment. The problem is Darren misquoted Khabib. Darren's whole problem was saying, 'Hey, go look at the population of Ireland in comparison to Russia.' That's the thing. Khabib never said Russia. In fact, he specifically said Dagestan."

Sonnen then goes on to reference Nurmagomedov's hometown of Sildi, Dagestan, which actually has a reported 244 residents, not 2,000. Dagestan as a whole has a little over three million people, while Ireland has a little over 5 million.

"The village that Khabib lives in, there's 2,000 people. There was seven Olympic champions. Seven of them have Olympic gold medals. That is crazy. 2,000 people, that's how many people I had in my high school. Khabib's point of bragging about Dagestan per capita versus anywhere on Earth you might like it, it might offend you, but there's no way to say he's wrong."

Check out Chael Sonnen supporting Khabib Nurmagomedov's claim:

Nurmagomedov was the first UFC champion from Dagestan, capturing the promotion's lightweight title en route to matching the division's consecutive title defense record (3). Now, the belt is in the hands of another Dagestani phenom, Islam Makhachev, who is set to defend it at UFC 311 against Arman Tsarukyan.

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Darren Till recently accused Ali Abdelaziz of tweeting on Khabib Nurmagomedov's behalf

Khabib Nurmagomedov doubled down on his recent comparison between Dagestani and Irish MMA. This drew the attention of his manager Ali Abdelaziz, who agreed with 'The Eagle,' claiming that statistics are irrefutable. However, Till took the chance to claim that Abdelaziz was behind Nurmagomedov's tweets.

"Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii are you talking to yourself again?"

Abdelaziz is known for occasionally logging into his fighters' X accounts to talk trash on their behalf, a habit he has caught flack for.