Nurmagomedov was born to an Avar family on 20 September 1988, in the village of Sildi in Tsumadinsky District of the Dagestan ASSR, an autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union,before moving to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in his childhood. The second of three children, he has an older brother, Magomed, and younger sister, Amina. His father's family had moved from Sildi, Tsumadinsky District, to Kirovaul, where his father converted the ground floor of their two-storey building into a gym. Nurmagomedov grew up in the household with his siblings and cousins. His interest in martial arts began when watching students training at the gym. As is common with many children in Dagestan, he began wrestling from an early age: he started at the age of eight under the tutelage of his father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.A decorated athlete and a veteran of the Army, his father had also wrestled from an early age, before undergoing training in judo and sambo in the military. Khabib's training as a child included wrestling a bear when he was nine years old. In 2001, his family moved to Makhachkala,where he trained in wrestling from the age of 12, and judo from 15. He resumed training in combat sambo, under his father, at 17. According to Nurmagomedov, the transition from wrestling to judo was difficult, but his father wanted him to get used to competing in a gi jacket. Abdulmanap was a senior coach for the combat sambo national team in the Republic of Dagestan, training several athletes in sambo in Makhachkala, Russia.[27] Nurmagomedov frequently got into street fights in his youth, before focusing his attention on mixed martial arts.