UFC bantamweight Brian Kelleher offers Conor McGregor to corner him for his bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin, Umar Nurmagomedov.
Kelleher is scheduled to face the 13-0 Nurmagomedov on the March 5 on UFC 272 in what will be the second fight in the promotion for the Russian.
‘Boom’ saw the perfect opportunity to capitalize on fighting the cousin of one of MMA’s biggest star, using the infamous rivalry between team Nurmagomedov and McGregor to his advantage. Kelleher would tweet at the Irishman, “Hey would you like to corner me in my next fight at UFC 272 against Khabibs cousin Umar.”
Kelleher explained his reasoning behind the tweet to The AllStar “I’m going to try to get Conor in my corner man. Let’s stir the pot a little bit,”
“My friend, who has nothing to do with fighting, we were sitting and having coffee. He’s like, ‘dude, you should tweet Conor right now and I’m telling you, he might respond because of the whole Khabib thing!’
“Conor likes to stay in the limelight and I was like, you know what, let me throw it out there and see what happens and it kinda went somewhat viral. A couple of media outlets covered it and a lot of hype got behind. You know what, I’m having fun while I’m doing this. None of this is real personal, it’s just me having fun.” (Transcribed by Mirror Fighting)
Although the New Yorker is having fun in the build-up to his bout, he has a serious test in front of him in Nurmagomedov who was originally scheduled to face jack Shore at UFC London.
American Kickboxing Academy head coach and ‘the Eagles’ former coach, Javier Mendez, had this to say about Nurmagomedov. “[He’s got] great striking and great kicking. That they [fans] can expect. It’s a whole different flair. A whole different flair.
“He’s great on the ground, he’s got good boxing, but he’s a phenomenal kicker. “So that’s one of the things you’ll notice a difference in between him and Khabib.