Navajo Stirling wants a plane ticket to Dagestan. The undefeated UFC knockout artist told Ariel Helwani he’s serious about training with Islam Makhachev’s crew, and he didn’t hedge much on the interest. “I would love to go to Dagestan,” Stirling said, in comments Helwani posted to X on Tuesday.
The pitch came with a jab at the guys who have already been asked. Stirling pointed out that Makhachev keeps extending invitations and Americans keep passing on them, singling out the one Makhachev sent to Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson. Stirling gave those fighters a pass for family reasons, then explained why he doesn’t need one. “They’ve all got kids and whatnot, but man, I ain’t got no kids, bro,” he said.
He also set terms. Makhachev’s standing offer, as Sherdog put it, is for fighters to spend “2-3 years in Dagestan and forget.” Stirling would like a smaller sample size first. “If they ever threw me the offer, I don’t know about two or three years, brother, but maybe two or three weeks to start off,” he said. Sherdog ran the story under the framing that Makhachev had finally found a taker, and Bloody Elbow described Stirling as an upcoming UFC main event star. Nobody from Makhachev’s side had publicly responded in the sources available at the time of writing.
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The CKB blueprint
In a separate clip Helwani shared the same day, Stirling talked about growing up inside City Kickboxing and what he picked up from the gym’s veterans. He said his “big brothers” and the coaches saw his rise coming, and that he absorbed lessons from everyone in the room, including the fighters who lost. “I’ve got the work ethic, I’ve seen it, I’ve got the teachings, what to do, what not to do,” he said.
He wasn’t shy about the ceiling either. “I want to be one of the greats. I want to be one of the best in the sport, and I don’t think I’ve even tapped into my potential yet,” Stirling said.
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That’s the backdrop for the Dagestan idea. A fighter who came up in a striking-heavy New Zealand camp, with an unbeaten record built on knockouts, is openly shopping for a grappling education from the most feared wrestling pipeline in the sport. Put those two things side by side and the logic writes itself.
Sal’s take
I like this more than most callout content, mostly because of the fine print. Anybody can tell a microphone they’d love to go to Dagestan. Stirling asking for two or three weeks instead of two or three years is the most honest thing a fighter has said about Dagestan in a while, because it’s a number a working pro can actually schedule around a fight camp. And from where I sit, the knockout artist with a wrestling hole is the profile oddsmakers love to price aggressively right up until a guy with a double leg exposes it. If Stirling closes that gap before the matchups that matter in his division, the people fading him on the theory that he’s only a striker are going to be holding some very bad tickets. The ball is in Makhachev’s court. He’s the one who keeps sending invitations, and for once somebody without a car seat in the back wrote back.
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