Khabib is smart to refuse a McGregor rematch
Why Khabib Nurmagomedov shouldn't do a rematch with Conor McGregor.
Nine months after one of the most infamous nights in UFC history, the wounds clearly haven’t healed for Khabib Nurmagomedov. In a bid to promote a fight with Nurmagomedov for the lightweight title, Conor McGregor stooped lower than any man had ever done in the build-up to their match at UFC 229 in Las Vegas last October.
It had started at UFC 223 six months prior to that, when McGregor apparently lost all sense of right and wrong and chartered a plane and flew to Brooklyn. McGregor’s intent was to mug Nurmagomedov because of a perceived slight Nurmagomedov did to McGregor teammate Artem Lobov in the fighter’s hotel that week.
McGregor infamously threw a dolly at a bus on which Nurmagomedov was seated and wound up being arrested.
That was bad enough.
But when UFC 229 was finally made and Nurmagomedov and McGregor met for the title at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, McGregor spent months going as low-brow as possible. He insulted Nurmagomedov’s religion. He insulted his family. He blasted his country.
It was personal and it was offensive and it was far beyond the kind of trash talking one would do to sell tickets and pay-per-views to a fight.
It led, of course, to the post-fight melee, when Nurmagomedov leaped over the cage to get after McGregor teammate Dillon Danis.
It was bad, and could have been much worse.
“In the last three years, he has only one victory, in amateur boxing,” Nurmagomedov said of a rematch. “How [does] he deserve a rematch? He tapped. He begged me, ‘Please don’t kill me,’ and now he’s talking about a rematch. Tony Ferguson is on the line. People who have win streaks are on the line, but not a guy who don’t win nothing the last three years. I have a lot of works without him, and right now, I’m focused on Sept. 7.”
There are, as Nurmagomedov said, a number of interesting fights for him at lightweight, starting with Poirier. If he defeats Poirier, Ferguson unquestionably deserves a shot. He’s on a 12-fight winning streak and has quietly become one of the best fighters in the world.
#KhabibvsPoirier #KhabibvsMcgregor #UFC242 #Khabib #McGregor #KhabibvsConor #KhabibNurmagomedov #Conor #ConorMcGregor #DustinPoirier
Instagram: / sports_tube_
Twitter: / sports_tube_
Facebook: / sportstube0
VK: https://vk.com/sportstube