Will we ever see Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov bury the hatchet?
No, probably not.
Despite only meeting once inside the Octagon, McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov is without a doubt the most intense rivalry in UFC history. Six years after their history-making encounter at UFC 229 — the only pay-per-view to eclipse two million buys in promotional history — their feud rages on with the Irish megastar often taking digs at ‘The Eagle’ on social media and in interviews.
Recently, McGregor went off on both Nurmagomedov and former U.S. president Donald Trump after ’45’ dubbed the Dagestani his favorite UFC fighter of all time.
Donald Trump says Khabib Nurmagomedov is his favorite UFC fighter, and details the conversation he had with him about the war between Russia and Ukraine
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While Trump got off relatively light with McGregor calling his remarks a “campaign-ending decision,” Nurmagomedov took the brunt of the backlash as ‘Mystic Mac’ labeled him a “smelly fat mountain monkey from the inbred mountains of Dagestan.”
Could Conor McGregor find peace in fighting Nurmagomedov’s protege?
Daniel Cormier, who is close friends with Nurmagomedov, offered his take on the constant quarreling between the two former champions and the possibility of ever seeing them squash their beef.
“He just hates Khabib. He hates him… They are not letting it go,” Cormier told Ben Askren during a recent episode of their Funky & The Champ podcast. “It’s deep-rooted, but it’s deep-rooted on both sides, honestly… [Khabib] doesn’t like this guy, bro. They don’t like each other. This is crazy. It really is. It’s deep. It’s very deep, but I think the closest thing you would get to a resolution in that is, again, Conor beating [Michael Chandler] and then earning a championship fight against Islam Makhachev, right?
“Then Khabib could probably try to find some comfort in that and Conor could try to actually find redemption in trying to beat the guy that became the guy, right? So, there’s stories there. I don’t know that it happens because Michael Chandler can’t seem to get a date” (h/t Sportskeeda).
The idea of Conor McGregor challenging current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev may seem far-fetched at this point, but considering the Irishman’s immense drawing power and the pre-written history between McGregor and Eagles MMA, we could see Dana White putting that fight together in a bid to break UFC 229’s record as the most-viewed event in the promotion’s 30+ years.
Of course, that all rides on McGregor getting past Michael Chandler when (or if) they fight.
