The Takedown | How Ramadan impacts UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s training – ‘it’s like cutting weight’
- UFC’s lightweight title holder is a devout Muslim who participates in the holy month each year
- Nurmagomedov says Ramadan, and fasting from dawn to dusk, is something he has to pay close attention to as a mixed martial artist
The holy month of Ramadan is an integral part of the Muslim faith.
It begins and ends with the appearance of the new moon to mark the ninth month of the Islamic calendar – April 23 to May 23 in 2020. Islamic tradition states that it was during the “Night of Power” – commemorated on one of the last 10 nights of Ramadan – that Islam’s holy book, the Koran, was sent down to the first heaven before being revealed to the Prophet Muhammad bit by bit over 23 years.
Ramadan is seen as a period of introspection for Muslims, filled with prayer, reading of the holy book and “sawm”, or fasting, in which Muslims abstain from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk, while also trying to avoid gossiping and anger.
UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who hails from the Dagestan region of Russia, is also a devout Muslim. His faith is woven into every aspect of his life and each year becomes a balancing act with the demanding duties of being a world-class fighter.
The Dagestan Chronicles from Anatomy of a Fighter offers a unique glimpse into Nurmagomedov’s upbringing and home life back in Russia. A multi-part series that follows the fighter from the gyms to the mosques to his childhood home during Ramadan, it showcases a side of him few have seen before. He is very candid in one episode about the impact that Ramadan has on his training, and how he has to balance obligations to his faith and his professional career as a mixed martial artist.