If you believe what Ali Abdelaziz says, Khabib Nurmagomedov is the last person Conor McGregor wants to fight.
A rematch between Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov. While it may not seem like the most competitive match-up in the world, it makes enough dollars and sense to be practically inevitable. Surely that’s what the UFC is angling for after they turned down Khabib and Georges St-Pierre’s request to fight each other.
But according to Khabib’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, McGregor wants no part of that fight.
”Conor McGregor did not ask for the rematch,” he told TMZ Sports. “He don’t want to have nothing to do with the rematch. His father don’t wan’t nothing to do with rematch. His mother don’t want nothing to do with rematch. His kids. His wife. The whole country of Ireland. They don’t want to spell the word rematch. They are fear. It’s fear going around Ireland. It’s fear going around the north side of Europe.”
“They don’t wan’t to see anything that starts with K” Abdelaziz continued. “Not the KKK, not Khabib, nothing with a K. They wan’t to see Corey A., they want to see Cerrone, they wanna see oldest guys he can play mental game with them. But I’m telling you, if he fought Cerrone, Cerrone’s gonna beat him.”
“Conor McGregor is a broken man, he’s got all sorts of legal problems. People try to sue him. He doesn’t need any of the smoke. Like I said, if you can’t inhale the smoke, don’t talk about the smoke.”
But just to be clear, if McGregor somehow managed to overcome this fear Abdelaziz is talking about, Khabib would rematch the Irish superstar. For the right price.
“End of day, the fight have to make sense,” Ali concluded. “The zeroes have to make sense. And we say we’ll fight. Khabib will fight. Khabib will fight a camel, a donkey, a bear, a tiger. But I know one thing: we’re going to let Conor live the rest of his life in peace.”
Bit of a weird flex, but okay.