Khabib Nurmagomedov’s former trainer Javier Mendez has told Jake Quickenden and Paul Smith what they need to do to prepare for victory.The pair of them fight in a ‘Stage to the Cage’ match-up in November as part of an Oktagon MMA fight, shown live on DAZN, and former X Factor star Quickenden, and comedian Smith, might feel like they need all the help they can get.
Speaking to SafeBettingSites, Quickenden said: “The first thing Jake and Paul need to do before they get into the cage is to get countless hours of sparring. And then to understand that the real fight will be much harder than those hours in the gym sparring.
“My advice is to concentrate on their mentality, bringing your mind strong. You get your mind strong by sparring as much as you can, so they can get used to what it's going to be like in that competition. But then also to be prepared that fight night isn't going to be exactly like sparring. It's going to be much harder.
“They also need to stay relaxed as much as possible and they need to put in their head 'I'm winning' and 'this is how I'm going to win' - everything you're doing is about entering that competition to win.”
He continued: “Their mindset needs to be that you're going in there to do nothing but win. They need to adopt a winning attitude. Then visualise how it comes. Ok, I'm going to knock him out with a left hook.
“You have to put in your head and visualise over and over. And then stay relaxed, don't get hyped up because you're wasting energy. If you hear our corner work, we are always saying ‘relax’.”
You can watch Oktagon 45 live on DAZN this Friday and Saturday. Click here for more details.