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12th Feb 2017

Khabib Nurmagomedov brings up old Conor McGregor comment to suggest he is not loyal

Getting personal

Patrick McCarry

Khabib Nurmagomedov may say he doesn’t care about Conor McGregor, but that doesn’t exactly make it true.

The Dagestani, who will fight Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight belt at UFC 209, was at a Q&A event in Brooklyn last night, and he made a number of interesting claims.

  • Conor McGregor is a “chicken” who will never defend his lightweight belt
  • He has 20 times the amount of fans that McGregor does
  • McGregor hasn’t an ounce of loyalty towards the UFC

The back and forth was interesting and Nurmagomedov was honest enough to concede that, were he to eventually get a fight against McGregor, the UFC would stage it in New York or Las Vegas, and not Russia.

When it comes to McGregor’s plans to take on 49-0 boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, Nurmagomedov is “fifty-fifty’ on whether it will ever happen but believes the Dubliner should remain loyal to the promotion that gave him his big break.

“Because of money, the fight could happen. But, if you think about it, he has contract with the UFC so no,” he said.

“I want to say to the UFC that I can help these guys and make this other guy [McGregor] humble. Because we remember how he ask for $50,000 and now he is talking about how he can make this other [Mayweather] fight without the UFC…

“This chicken is no loyal.”

Nurmagomedov was referring to McGregor’s ’60 G’s baby!’ comments he made back in 2013 when he defeated Marcus Brimage on his UFC debut.

‘The Notorious’ was calling on UFC president Dana White to give him the Performance of the Night bonus of $50,000 (just under £40,000 at the time)

Now that there is a potential billion dollar fight, according to McGregor, on the line, Nurmagomedov believes the Irish fighter has forgotten who gave him his big break.

McGregor has already stated that he wants the UFC to be involved in any potential fight with Mayweather so he will resent his loyalty being brought into question.

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