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“You have to give the rematch to Conor. It won’t be an easy fight but it will be a win for him”.
Artem Lobov thinks teammate Conor McGregor should be fast-tracked to a title shot against Khabib Nurmagomedov rather than having to prove himself against top-five UFC lightweight Justin Gaethje.
McGregor was submitted by Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 but rebounded with a stunning 40-second TKO of Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, proving that ‘The Notorious’ is still an elite-tier fighter.
Lobov, who trains with McGregor at SBG Ireland in Dublin, believes McGregor is already deserving of the Khabib rematch and is confident the Irishman will dethrone ‘The Eagle’ with another solid training camp.
“To be honest, I just want to see Conor fight the winner of Tony and Khabib, which makes more sense than Gaethje. There is always going to be someone talking. But, when you are in the position of Conor and has done what he has done, you don’t need to prove anything,” Lobov said to BJPENN.com. “For him, he should just fight the best guy every time. They wanted him to have a fight before and he had one against ‘Cowboy’ and finished that in 40 seconds. That’s it. From now on he needs to fight the best guy only.”
“I think if you look at when Conor lost to Diaz he made the necessary changed and dominated that fight with three knockdowns. He overcame the issues he had. You have to give the rematch to Conor,” he added. “It won’t be an easy fight but it will be a win for him. Look at round three, Khabib wasn’t able to score any takedowns. Look at how good Conor did, you have never seen any fighter do that. There are clear reasons, now that he’s focused, with another training camp for Khabib that he will win.”
Khabib was expected to defend his lightweight title against Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 but is likely out of the bout due to the travel ban in Russia.