Renowned UFC commentator Joe Rogan reveals Makhachev's secret to Topuria: "That's why he's so good."

If Ilia Topuria ultimately faces Islam Makhachev for the 155-pound belt, he'll be facing one of the toughest fighters in recent memory. The Russian has prevailed over a wide variety of opponents , including Arman Tsarukyan, Charles Oliveira, and Dustin Poirier. Makhachev is a competitor who rarely makes mistakes and, except for the fight with Volkanovski, we've never seen him tire.

How does the Dagestani achieve this level? The answer was given by Joe Rogan , the well-known UFC commentator , who pointed out that the discipline of Makhachev and his team, which includes Khabib Nurmagomedov, is absolute: " Khabib had incredibly grueling training sessions. That was something that showed in his stamina. His discipline was second to none . No girlfriends, no phones, no nonsense, no video games. Screw you! We train. We eat, we recover, we train. Do you really want to be a champion? That's how you have to work. That's how Islam Makhachev is so good. That's how Khabib is so good. Those guys are disciplined."

According to Joe Rogan, and this is known by those who have trained with them, Makhachev and his team's commitment to a fight, and to MMA in general, is unwavering. These are athletes who not only take care of themselves for part of the year but do so all the time, and when there's a fight, there's only that fight . There's nothing else to do during that time other than perfecting aspects and training at the maximum. There are even those who say they've never seen Khabib Nurmagomedov give up a round, even in training.

Other fighters share some of this obsession, but don't take it quite so far. Jon Jones , for example, has admitted that he barely sleeps, thinking about the details of his opponents. However, in the case of the heavyweight champion, his life is much more dissolute and chaotic when he's not training for a fight.