With Conor McGregor involved, nothing is ever simple. The MMA superstar only demands the best fights for him instead of who is next in line. Put simply, if the fight isn’t big enough, McGregor won’t take it.
That seems to be the case for his return to the octagon after his loss to Floyd Mayweather in his debut boxing match. Here is a post from light heavyweight champion, Daniel Cormier about Khabib Nurmagomedov:
So i walk into the gym today and @khabib_nurmagomedov walks up and says the @ufc is wanting to make me vs @tonyfergusonxt for dec 30. They wanna make the card bigger for the end of the year. Then he tells me that tony is saying no to the fight. Come on Tony, that ain’t gangsta bruh. Take that fight man!!!! And by the way Ufc says tony won’t ever fight Conor so that’s not an option. The fans really want it. Come on My friend, hit him with that low single u always talk about. #khabibchamp #Weareaka
It seems as if the UFC now has no intentions of making the fight between Conor McGregor and lightweight interim champ, Tony Ferguson, go down. This is according to Nurmagomedov, of course.
This is quite the 180 from a week after Ferguson beat Kevin Lee for the interim title and the rightful next shot at a fight with Conor McGregor, which is also a massive payday.
The AKA Connection
Both Cormier and Nurmagomedov train at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California. The gym is very close with other fighters such as Germaine de Randamie, Luke Rockhold, and Cain Velasquez all training there. Being so close, it’s believable that Nurmagomedov would come to Cormier with these claims. Now, wether or not Khabib is telling the secrets of the UFC or simply using leverage for an impending fight with McGregor remains to be seen.
It’s often thought that McGregor and Nurmagomedov in Russia has been in Dana White’s plans for some time and could be the biggest card in the history of the UFC.
Nurmagomedov has a fight scheduled Edson Barboza at UFC 219 on December 30th in Las Vegas. McGregor is still weighing options on his first ever title defense. Stay tuned to MMAsucka for the latest.
Tony pic.twitter.com/IhPaemJP30
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 13, 2017