Odds-makers like MyBookie believe that Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov would be evenly matched if they were to fight, but will they fight? While we don’t when they might, we now have an inkling as to where. “You know what Conor told me? He said, ‘I want Khabib in Russia,’” White told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “Isn’t he (expletive deleted) awesome? He’s like, ‘I want Khabib, in Russia.’ He’s awesome. Conor McGregor is a (expletive deleted) unicorn. There’s nothing like him. He’s working on boxing Floyd Mayweather and then he’s talking about fighting Khabib in Russia right after.”
Dude, cool it with the man-crush. Don’t you know office bromances never work? And “unicorn”? Is he a brony now? Where were we? Oh, yeah. So Nurmagomedov – who hails from Dagestan, Russia – had previously called Mac out after UFC 205, where the former beat Michael Johnson in the preliminary card and the latter defeated Eddie Alvarez for the Lightweight Championship in the main event. “Your guy, beginning of the year, he tapped like a chicken, end of the year he fights for the title. Crazy,” Nurmagomedov said back then. Sadly, he didn’t add, “in Russia, title fight for you.” Also, chickens don’t tap, they peck. Mac replied that ‘The Eagle’ was too flaky for his taste.
“He ain’t fighting frequent enough for my liking,” McGregor said at the UFC 205 post-event press conference. “I need to know people are going to show up, and he’s a consistent pullout merchant.” Fortunately for sportsbooks, Mac seems to have changed his mind, which only makes sense. After all Conor said, “I need to see active. I need to see activity consistency,” and Nurmagomedov has been very active since UFC 205. Let’s see… how many fights has he had since then? How many guys has he beaten? None and none, actually. Consistency? To quote Iñigo Montoya, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Or maybe Conor was being candid and not sarcastic when he said “[Nurmagomedov]’s fought once in eight years.” Perhaps he took a second look at the Russian’s record and realized that Khabib has actually fought 24 times in eight years, a period during which he has been undefeated, up to and including eight UFC bouts – respectively the longest MMA winning streak of any active UFC fighter and the second-longest among active fighters in the lightweight division, behind Tony Ferguson.
UFC Odds: CONOR MCGREGOR VS KHABIB NURMAGOMEDOV
Odds as of October 1st, 2018 by MyBookie Sportsbook
Conor McGregor +145
Khabib Nurmagomedov -165
And speaking of El Cucuy, his and Nurmagomedov’s interim title match scheduled for UFC 2009 was cancelled – the third time Fergie and Khabib have had to postpone their date. Take the hint, Dana; like Mike Bisping said, “an interim belt is a joke.” Let’s call it a No. 1 contender’s match and you’ll see how it goes off without a hitch. Also fortunately for U.S. sportsbooks, White said of Nurmagomedov-Ferguson, “those guys (have) got to fight,” which was a too brief pause in his Conor love-fest: “I’ve got guys telling me, ‘I don’t want to fight this guy, and I don’t want to do this.’ (Conor says), ‘I want Floyd Mayweather then I want (expletive deleted) Khabib in Russia.’ How do you not love him?” Let us count the ways.
