ONE rising star Halil Amir had the absolute pleasure of training with arguably one of the greatest ever to lace the four-ounce gloves.
'No Mercy', who will make his ONE featherweight MMA debut at ONE Fight Night 22 against Akbar Abdullaev, recently traveled to Dagestan and learned from the legend himself, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
In an interview with ONE, Amir recalled his time with 'The Eagle' and relayed how down-to-earth he was despite his status atop the MMA pantheon:
"As a person, [Khabib] is a very simple person. He is often immersed in training and helps his team and, of course, he was also pushing me during the training sessions."
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Iron certainly sharpens iron, and Halil Amir picking up new tricks from Nurmagomedov will definitely make him more dangerous than he already is.
The 29-year-old still holds a perfect 10-0 slate in his MMA career by far, including three wins against high-caliber opponents in the world's largest martial arts organization.
While Halil Amir is known as a striker, he already showed his well-rounded arsenal in grappling exchanges against Maurice Abevi and Ahmed Mujtaba.
We'll soon see if The Amir Team standout will display an even deadlier ground game much like his idol Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Amazon Prime Video subscribers in the United States and Canada can witness ONE Fight Night 22 free of charge, as it happens live in US primetime on May 3 from Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Lito Adiwang expecting fireworks in battle of KO artists Halil Amir and Akbar Abdullaev
Given both undefeated fighters' respective track records, the odds are somebody is going to sleep when Halil Amir and Akbar Adbullaev lock horns.
Even ONE strawweight MMA contender Lito Adiwant thinks this match could be a Fight of The Year contender. However, 'Thunder Kid' also explored the possibility of the pair possibly canceling each other out.
Adiwang told ONE:
"It’s exciting because for sure both of them will hunt to get that KO, and I believe they can get it. But on the other side, the negative side, there would be a cautious factor because both fighters are knockout artists."