Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has fired back at bitter rival Conor McGregor who accused him of “chickening out” of UFC 249.
On Wednesday Nuramgomedov seemingly pulled the plug on his April 18 fight with number one contender Tony Ferguson which was due to take place at UFC 249.
After the news broke former opponent McGregor took to Twitter and accused his rival of “chickening out” of the fight before saying he is in shape and ready to compete himself.
Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Nurmagomedov denied pulling out of the fight and fired shots back at McGregor who in his opinion is “fake”, he said.
“When I smash him last time, he said ‘my foot [is to] blame’ or something like this, ‘it was not my good shape.’ How he right now in good shape? How? How we can talk about shape when I smash his face, when he tap, he said ‘it was my bad shape, I was without shape’ now we talk about ‘I am in good shape, I can come in.’
“A couple days ago he send message ‘hey people please take care of family, be safe, stay home, government ask us stay home.’ A couple days ago, now he talk about ‘I am good shape..blah blah blah, someone have to fight, someone have to fly.’ For me this is 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 is fake, what are you talking about, about his shape? He go to some island and sit home all day like scared about this Coronavirus but he don’t talk about this.”
“What happened October 6, 2018? When you have six months training camp, you do everything you can, you come inside the cage, you talk a lot of bad things before the fight, six months you train very hard, you come inside the cage and tap like chicken. When I’m going to be here, Tony [Ferguson] is maximum interim champ, Conor always going to be No. 2, he never can do nothing with me. Inside the cage, he’s zero. Like when we fight, what’d he do? He do zero. Okay, everybody talk about his stand-up, I give him all round, I stand with him.”
Nurmagomedov insisted while he is around McGregor and Ferguson will always be number two as they cannot beat him, he said.
“When I’m in the UFC, always Tony going to be interim champion, and always Conor [McGregor] going to be No. 2 when I’m here. These guys are always going to be No. 2, I’m going to be No. 1, these guys going to be No. 2, interim, fake, these guys are not on my level. This is good, make them interim title, Tony deserve interim title, Conor No. 2, and everybody knows who’s the best.” (Transcribed by BJPenn.com)
What do you make of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s response to Conor McGregor?
Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Khabib Nurmagomedov denied accusations of pulling out of his upcoming title defense against Tony Ferguson at UFC249. Nurmagomedov stated that he never said he was out, his only decision was that he would not fly anywhere without a confirmed location for the bout. “Like right now, if they give me […]
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