Greatness in football—and in fighting—comes from players who take initiative, accept risk, and refuse to hide.
Khabib explains what separates truly great athletes from merely good ones: the willingness to take the ball, take responsibility, and risk failure. He uses Cristiano Ronaldo stepping up for a second penalty after missing the first, and Zlatan Ibrahimović's frustration with teammates who immediately pass the ball away. ✦ AI generated
Khabib Nurmagomedov · Lex Fridman · 2026-08-12 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 145:13
“What style of football do you like?”
I like players who are willing to take the initiative... It drives me crazy when I have players on my team who, when you pass them the ball, they immediately get rid of it. They don't want to take the initiative... You're taking the ball. You're taking responsibility. You're taking the initiative. You are not afraid to fail... Cristiano had a moment like that. He missed a penalty, and later in the same match, he stepped up to take another one... you're not afraid to fail. As a leader, you take the initiative, and you're willing to take risks. That's honestly the beauty of it, the beauty of sports in general. The bigger the risk, the bigger the potential for greatness... If there's no risk, then there's no... You can't put yourself in the category of athletes people will talk about as some of the best ever.
verbatim transcript · starts at 145:13
145:08right. Let's talk about football now. I want to ask you something, and I need to be careful here because after yesterday, I realize just how much you know about the game. I can't even pretend I know what I'm talking about anymore. I need to tread carefully. - Yes. If we're gonna go there- ... don't make any mistakes. I hope you did your research. - I'm shaking now.
145:30- You prepared? - Wait. We could talk about a lot of interesting teams. You talked about the moment when you fell in love with football. That was the Champions League final in 1998. It was Real Madrid against Juventus. It was the moment when you, you realized that Real Madrid was your team, the club you've continued to love and support ever since. Tell me about that very first moment when you watched the game with your father.
146:00What do you remember? You know, this is such an important sport for you, for millions, hundreds of millions, billions of people. - Billions, yes. - What do you remember most about that game, and what did you fall in love with? - Well, first of all, my father was a huge football fan. He was a good player himself. When we lived in the village, they played almost every
146:20day. Football has always been very popular where I'm from. The kids, the young people, everyone plays. In fact, we still have this tradition in the village. As long as I can remember, it was a tradition to... for each street to put together its own team for a tournament with, eh, group stages, then the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final. So it became a real tradition, and everyone would.
146:48Everyone there follows football, the kids, the young people. And my father played, too. Whenever there was a big match on, I'd always sit with him, in front of the television and watch. The first football memory I have that's really clear and conscious goes back to 1996. I couldn't tell you where we were watching it. I don't remember, but I remember sitting next to my father. It was the European Championship semifinal, Germany and England.