The Mets’ 4-1 loss to the Braves at Citi Field on May 11, less than two weeks after touching down in the United States, wasn’t the first time Islam Makhachev experienced baseball.
Well, as long as “baseball” can mean a version of the game played a bit differently by a bunch of youngsters in Dagestan.
“Baseball … This is the game which I played when I was [a kid], but we have different rules,” Makhachev, who sported a Mets City Connect jersey at the ballpark that day, recently explained to The Post from Nick Catone MMA, the Brick, N.J., gym where the UFC lightweight champion and his team spent the final month of his UFC 302 training camp.
“I went to baseball for the first time now in a big event, and the rules are similar. It’s funny.”
Forgive Makhachev (25-1, 16 finishes) for confusing the disappointing Mets with a “big event;” he’s new to the traditional format of America’s pastime.
That’s in stark contrast to Makhachev’s mastery of MMA, a sport in which he’s spent half his life honing his craft, to the point that he enters Saturday’s headliner at Prudential Center as the pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter on Earth defending his 155-pound crown against Dustin Poirier.
A professional for 14 years, Makhachev’s development came under the wing of Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, referred to as “Father” by all his proteges including his UFC Hall of Fame son Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Father has been gone nearly four years now, a victim of COVID-19 during the throes of the pandemic, just three months before his son retired as the unbeaten UFC lightweight champion.
It fell to Khabib to take the lead for a small group of men from a small corner of Russia who’ve frequently dominated the competition for years.
As far as Makhachev is concerned, the son has admirably filled Father’s shoes.
“Almost the same because [Khabib] now pushes us very hard, and his father had the same style,” says Makhachev, 32, of his longtime friend and training partner’s ways as the lead presence in the gym. “That’s why I know they have almost a similar style because Khabib is his son. We are all from old school. We follow the same plan, always. Doesn’t matter. The discipline which Abdulmanap gave us, we still follow right now.”
Pressed on how Khabib, still just 35 years old, does things differently from Father, Makhachev conceded that “maybe some things, he brings new” but doubled down on “discipline” as the heart of his coach’s methodology.
“Doesn’t matter if you are champion, you’re a big star, doesn’t matter. Everybody’s the same,” Makhachev said.
Khabib, who Makhachev revealed Tuesday will also corner the champion for the first time since stepping back from that particular role following Makhachev’s coronating win over Charles Oliveira in October 2022, was in command of their team’s corner of the Jersey Shore gym owned by UFC veteran Nick Catone on the Wednesday before fight week.
Even with Javier Mendez, coach and founder of vaunted American Kickboxing Academy in California, observing practice for the champion and coach with whom he worked closely during their respective times in the UFC, the floor belonged solely to Khabib and his trademark stoicism sprinkled with sly little ways of lightening the mood for his charges.
Few would mistake the Dagestani crew for attention-seeking jokesters, but both Makhachev and Khabib have been known to mix in humor publicly from time to time in English as well as their native Russian.
“Always like this,” Makhachev says of Khabib keeping the room light at times, “because when you’re training all day, the same things, if you try to be serious [all the time], it’s very hard. You have to love your job, you know? You have to come, smile, be [there] with good energy.”
Khabib’s absence from the corner of Makhachev did no harm to the results in the octagon, as the champion is coming off a 2023 in which he successfully defended his title twice against then-featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Nonetheless, Khabib earned additional respect during his time cornering fighters since retirement, and his voice of experience figures to bring only positives against Poirier (30-8, 23 finishes), the longtime lightweight star whose first of two unsuccessful previous attempts to become the undisputed champion ended in a submission loss to Nurmagomedov in 2019.
Makhachev has ribbed Poirier multiple times over the challenger’s long history of unsuccessfully fishing for guillotine choke victories — including a solid attempt on Khabib in their fight — but speaks respectfully of his opponent overall.
Nonetheless, the champion needs only to look around the mat to find the confidence that he’ll emerge victorious in Newark this weekend.
“I have much better training partners than Dustin,” Makhachev asserts. “High-level striking guys.”