Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Khabib Nurmagomedov calls Conor McGregor a hypocrite for his recent comments about UFC 249.
Conor McGregor put Khabib Nurmagomedov on blast as soon it was announced that ‘The Eagle’ had withdrawn from UFC 249, shaming the undefeated lightweight champion for ‘scurrying out of the US’ to avoid defending his title against Tony Ferguson.
The fact of this matter is, both Tony and Khabib where engaged in a game of chicken here towards the fight bell. With Khabib chickening out first. Making it 3-2 in pullouts in Tony’s favour. Khab scurried out of the U.S to home, and amid the crisis. Very high risk.
Congrats Tony.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 2, 2020
“The fact of this matter is, both Tony and Khabib where engaged in a game of chicken here towards the fight bell. With Khabib chickening out first. Making it 3-2 in pullouts in Tony’s favour. Khab scurried out of the U.S to home, and amid the crisis. Very high risk. Congrats Tony,” McGregor posted on Twitter.
Khabib, who is currently stranded in Russia due to the coronavirus pandemic, responded to McGregor by calling him a hypocrite for encouraging everyone in Ireland to stay at home with their loved ones while shaming Nurmagomedov for following the same protocol in Russia.
‘The Eagle’ also called ‘The Notorious’ a ‘chicken’ for tapping out at UFC 229.
“I no understand,” Khabib told ESPN in a recent interview (h/t MMA Fighting). “This guy [Conor] talks about he’s in good shape but when I smash him last time he’s like, ‘My foot is blame’ or something like this. ‘It was not my good shape.’ How he right now is good shape? How we can talk about shape when I smash his face and he tap? He say ‘It was my bad shape, I was without shape, blah, blah, blah’ Now we talk about ‘I am good shape, I can come in.’
“Okay, a couple days ago he send message, ‘Hey people, take care of family, please, be safe, stay home, government ask us to stay home.’ Now he talks ‘I’m good shape, blah, blah, blah, someone has to fight, someone has to fly.’ This is fake. For me, it’s fake. I was always real. Maybe someone like, maybe someone don’t like, this is not my job. But I was always real, but this guy’s fake. What are you talking about, talking about his shape? He goes to some island and sits home all day, scared about this coronavirus but he don’t talk about this. He judges someone, ‘He has to fly here, he has to go there, he has to fight.’”
“What happened, October 6th, 2018?” Khabib asked. “When you have six month training camp before the fight, you do everything that you can and you come inside the cage, you talk a lot of bad things before the fight, six months you train very hard, and you come inside the cage and tap like chicken. What are you talking about?”
With Nurmagomedov officially out of UFC 249 on April 18, it’s expected that Justin Gaethje fill in as as his replacement. UFC president Dana White is expected to announce a new venue for the event later today.