Khabib Nurmagomedov is pulling some Conor McGregor moves of late.
On Thursday, Nurmagomedov tried to throw his weight around by insisting that he was prepared to walk away from the UFC if Dana White followed through with his promise to cut Nurmagomedov’s teammate, Zubaira Tukhugov, from the roster.
Fresh from his lightweight title defence, ‘The Eagle’ wanted to make his apparent new-found pull with the UFC count by standing by his close friend.
It has been suggested in the past that McGregor’s cachet played a large role in getting the feet of teammates Artem Lobov and Charlie Ward in the UFC door in recent years and Nurmagomedov is clearly trying something similar to keep his pals in a job, despite their roles in the brawl which marred the UFC 229 main event last weekend.
The next McGregor-esque manoeuvre from Nurmagomedov came with the fact that he has now hinted at a move to professional wrestling, just as the Irishman has repeatedly done.
I didn't mean no disrespect to the @wwe fans. What I meant to say was that I'd slap the head off your entire roster. And twice on Sunday's.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) August 7, 2016
Nobody is better than McGregor at planting a seed of interest and Nurmagomedov has attempted to do just that by suggesting that he will happily make the move to the ring and compete against Brock Lesnar.
Nurmagomedov’s tweet early on Friday morning could also be perceived as something of a veiled threat to the UFC, i.e. “Grant my demands regarding my friends or I will break my contract and jump ship to the WWE.”
@WWE ask me to jump inside.
What do you think guys? #SmashLesnar #FakeFights— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) October 12, 2018
