Former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor has been calling for a rematch with Nurmagomedov, but Nurmagomedov’s agent in Ali Abdelaziz says McGregor isn’t even on the champ’s radar.
“Listen, Dana’s the greatest promoter in history, (and) I respect the man very much,” he said to TMZ Sports (via Simon Head of MMA Junkie). “He has to make people care about Conor. And by mentioning Khabib’s name, he is making Conor more relevant. It’s OK. He promote, can do whatever. Khabib has a plan, Dana has a plan, Sometimes we’ll get upset, sometimes we’ll agree, but business moves on. But Conor’s not on our radar. He might lose to ‘Cowboy,’ as far as I understand. I think he might lose.”
Dana White did say that McGregor could get a rematch against Nurmagomedov with a win at UFC 246, but Nurmagomedov spoke out against those comments from the UFC President.
Abdelaziz also believes it is a smart move by the UFC to keep McGregor away from fighting Justin Gaethje.
“Listen, Conor does not want to have to do anything with Gaethje,” he said. “We understand, like I said, Gaethje takes a lot of people into deep water. We understand Conor is a quitter – he quit when he was in deep water. The UFC made the right choice not to (have Conor) fight Gaethje, because he would have beat his ass. Simple."
UFC 249 takes place on Saturday, April 18 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
