"They don't care if you're the champion" - Belal Muhammad gets brutally honest about training with Khabib Nurmagomedov

Belal Muhammad is once again singing Khabib Nurmagomedov's praises, touching on his experience training with the legendary lightweight. In a recent interview on Barstool Chicago, the reigning UFC welterweight champion spoke about Nurmagomedov's work ethic and no-nonsense approach to training.

While training camps usually afford a level of luxury to champions, the same is not the case under Nurmagomedov's watch. 'The Eagle' pushes all of his pupils and training partners to their limit regardless of their accomplishments. Everyone, as Muhammad asserts, is equal in the gym.

"It's way different. It's just a smaller group of guys that are all killers. There's not an easy route. A lot of times, you'll go to gyms and you'll know, 'I feel sore today, so I'm gonna go lighter with this guy.' There's not a light round in that gym. And Khabib, he's still training, he's still going hard, he's smashing me no matter what. So it's always good because you level up with those guys. It humbles you, right? I'm the champion now, [but] they don't care if you're the champion. You still have to do the pushups, you still have to do the running with the team, the warmup with the team."

Check out Belal Muhammad detailing his training sessions with Khabib Nurmagomedov (18:02):

The relationship between Muhammad and Nurmagomedov has grown to such an extent that 'The Eagle' can't even stomach the idea of training Islam Makhachev, the current UFC lightweight champion and another one of his pupils, to defeat Muhammad in a potential welterweight title fight.

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Khabib Nurmagomedov cornered Belal Muhammad to his only finish in years

Belal Muhammad isn't known for his finishing ability. He's a relentless wrestler with a bottomless gas tank that he uses to outwork his opponents. Unfortunately, he neither pursues submissions nor possesses enough punching power to consistently stop his fooes. At UFC 280, though, there was an exception.

Check out Belal Muhammad TKO'ing Sean Brady:

With Khabib Nurmagomedov in his corner, he faced the then undefeated Sean Brady and overwhelmed him on the feet. By round two, his opponent could do little to defend himself and Muhammad was awarded a TKO win: his first finish in three years at the time, and first TKO/knockout in six.