UNDEFEATED UFC STAR Khabib Nurmagomedov insists that he’ll be the man to bring down Conor McGregor when the current UFC featherweight champion makes his move to the lightweight division.
Nurmagomedov also believes that McGregor is deliberately trying to avoid a featherweight title defence against Frankie Edgar, who’s seen as the number one contender at 145lbs following his first-round KO of Chad Mendes last month.
McGregor’s next bout is likely to be announced shortly, with the expectation being that he’ll move up to 155lbs to face reigning lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.
Speaking to ArabsMMA.com, Nurmagomedov claimed that McGregor has been courting an immediate title shot against dos Anjos because he doesn’t want to risk going through the division’s top contenders — such as the 27-year-old from Dagestan.
“I think Conor is a good fighter but if he thinks he can come to the lightweight division and have a chance of beating me he is delusional,” said Nurmagomedov, an accomplished wrestler who has a 22-0 record, with his last six victories coming in the UFC.
“I’m the worst match-up for him in the UFC. This is why he is trying to move up and fight RDA [Rafael dos Anjos] now. He wants to avoid fighting me. If he comes to lightweight and fights me I will give him a great welcome.”
Nurmagomedov and McGregor previously appeared to have a good relationship, although ‘The Eagle’ did claim in an interview last year that he’d need less than four minutes to defeat the Dubliner. And now that they share the same objective — the lightweight belt — Nurmagomedov obviously doesn’t want McGregor to get in the way.
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Having been plagued by injuries, Nurmagomedov hasn’t fought in almost two years. His last win came against dos Anjos and he’s hoping to be back in action by April.
Nurmagomedov, who — along with Frankie Edgar — became a member of the KHK MMA team in Bahrain last year, also added his voice to calls for Edgar to be given an opportunity to dethrone McGregor in the featherweight division.
He said: “Frankie is one of my favourite fighters of all time. He has the heart of a lion. I believe Conor is running from Frankie. Frankie deserves the next title shot.”
Can they just not do the respectful thing and come straight out with the question “Will you please fight me so I can make a heap of money Conor?”
Or as Conor has said to someone ” Tell the wife to break out the Red Panties”
Videos of this chap wrestling bears as a kid. Tough as they come. A lot of top quality boxers from Dagestan aswel. Bred to fight these people are. Would be a very bad match up for Conor .
I’ve seen a good few people putting forward this idea that K is extra-hard because he grew up bear-wrassling. The internet is littered with videos of kids and adults playing with animals, bears lions and tigers you name it. If they weren’t simply playing around, the bear would have clawed his face off in one swipe and/or bitten through his neck. Keep the referrals to K’s sporting achievements v other humans, not some childhood play with an animal that had no intent to harm.
That being said I fully agree with you Paul that he’d pose unique problems. But its not a fight we will see soon as Conor probably has 2 obvious fights before a matchup with K transpires and in the meantime anything could happen with K given his injury issues.
Finally – noting article highlights Khabib signed for KHK – is this same team John Kavanagh is now involved with???
This lad is an animal! Mc gregor won’t go near him
I agree. Khabib is probably the most dangerous lightweight. He mauled current champ RDA and would be belt holder if it wasn’t for injuries.
Saw that fight! It was unreal! I think he’d maul anyone in the division
Yeah rag doll stuff
Rag doll stuff against a guy who normally does rag doll stuff to everyone else. He’s a completely different level to everyone else in that devision when it comes to grappling. Every round starts on the feet though which would make it an intriguing match up. If he can stay healthy I’m sure we’ll see that fight sooner rather than later.
Pathetic attempt
No precision. Conor is too accurate. Great wrestler but no knockout power
It would be another increase in the levels for CMG. He’s passed everyone so far with flying colours tho.
It’s not hard to avoid fighting a guy who’s perpetually injured.
McGregor is a sissy
Dagestani fighter’s have a notoriously sketchy doping culture. I would question his 2 year lay off big time.. He has elite level wrestling, but so did Mendes.. I don’t see many that would pose a serious threat to McGregor in the 155lb division, would be interesting to see if his right hand has the same effect on the bigger guy thou..