Khabib Nurmagomedov has no interest in a rematch with Conor McGregor although he agrees that their personal rivalry will never be over.
McGregor lost to Khabib at UFC 229 last October and things got even wilder after the bout as the latter rushed out of the octagon to challenge the Irishman and his team after he was provoked. That led to an all-out melee between the two fighters, as well as their entourages. Suspensions and fines would follow, with Khabib picking up a nine-month ban and a $500,000 fine while McGregor was handed a six-month suspension and fined $50,000.
Speaking to ESPN in a recent interview, McGregor admitted that he wants a rematch with the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion, claiming that their story isn’t over.
While Khabib concurs with that last part, he’s not interested in fighting McGregor, at least not in an MMA setting. He pretty much expects that they will go at it if they ever come across each other out there.
“Even this fight finish, not everything is finished,” he said, per mmafighting.com. “Just smash people it’s not enough. I talk about just smash only him? It’s not enough. We have to smash all his team. This is what I think before the fight. This is what I say to my team. ‘Hey, tonight, we’re going to war. This is not about fight.’
“It will never be finished. Ever. Even if we see [each other] somewhere, we’re going to fight, 100 percent. It doesn’t matter if someone go to jail or something like this. I’m not scared about this. If someone has to go to jail, they go to jail. . . They go to hospital and we’ll go to police. That’s it.”
UFC boss Dana White reckons a rematch is “absolutely possible” but Khabib isn’t keen on listening to any talk of another fight with Conor and is only interested in fighting “real guys.”
”Dana [White], no need to call me,” he says. “Why he have to call me about this fight? We talk with Dana sometimes, he’s a good guy, but don’t talk with me about this crazy fight. I want to fight real guys – Dustin Poirier, Tony Ferguson, maybe if one of the greatest athletes ever, Georges St-Pierre, wants to fight. I want to fight those guys. I don’t want to fight with a guy who never wins.”
Khabib is now set for a match with Poirier and the two will face off at UFC 42 on September 7. Of course, the champ is going into this clash as the favorite, with William Hill offering odds of 1/4 on a win for Khabib and 3/1 on Poirer. Marathon Bet has 50/1 odds on offer for a draw, something which is quite unlikely but still presents the potential for some lovely returns. If you’re perhaps looking to place your bets with the former, you could furnish yourself with a sportsbook review on William Hill Canada at the preceding link.
There are a few other main card fights to bet on. You could get 4/11 odds on Mairbeck Taisumov beating the 21/10 Diego Ferreria from William Hill, who also has odds of 4/7 on Edson Barboza coming collecting a victory from his match against 11/8 Paul Felder. The bookmakers are also offering 4/11 on a win for Islam Makhachev, who is set to face Davi Ramos. The latter has 2/1 odds attached to his name.
We could see Khabib get his fight with Ferguson following his match against Poirer this September, but it could depend on the outcome.
