As far as Ali Abdelaziz is concerned, Khabib Nurmagomedov is out of the Conor McGregor business for good.
Nurmagomedov’s manager told TMZ Sports that talks of a rematch between the two lightweight rivals have been ongoing and were reignited recently in a conversation between Abdelaziz and UFC President Dana White. According to Abdelaziz, the UFC was considering Nurmagomedov and McGregor for a revival of its long-running reality series The Ultimate Fighter.
Justin Gaethje, another Abdelaziz client, was also considered (Gaethje challenges Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight championship at UFC 254 on Oct. 24). Should the pairing have been scheduled for TUF, Abdelaziz predicts it would have been a volatile one.
“Last week Dana White called me,” Abdelaziz said. “He said, ‘Ali, what do you think if Khabib win, him and Conor do The Ultimate Fighter on ESPN?’ This is breaking news. I said, ‘I don’t know. I’ll think about it.’ And he said, of course, [vice versa] if Justin win.
“It would be Khabib vs. Conor on The Ultimate Fighter, coaching. It would have been f*cking huge. Probably would have went to the hospital because he would have beat his ass and his whole team. Or Justin Gaethje vs. [McGregor].”
However, in the end, Abdelaziz claims that Nurmagomedov removed himself from the equation due to his disdain for McGregor. The two stars fought at UFC 229 in October 2018, a bout that was preceded by a lengthy and deeply personal feud. Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor by fourth-round submission in the headliner of what was one of the most successful pay-per-views in UFC history.
Even with the possibility of another massive payday for both men, Abdelaziz says Nurmagomedov wasn’t interested.
“I talked with Khabib yesterday,” Abelaziz said. “He said, ‘This man is human trash. He’s like garbage. When you touch sh*t, you smell sh*t.’ He said, ‘He doesn’t earn the fight. You understand? He doesn’t earn the fight.’
Abdelaziz’s latest verbal assault on McGregor was motivated by McGregor recently revealing private texts between himself and White in which they discussed potential plans for the Irish superstar. McGregor did not appreciate White’s take on why McGregor’s inactivity and recent retirement announcement, and he accused him of manipulating the facts.
McGregor claims he was looking to fight multiple times in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and it was the UFC who couldn’t set up an appealing opportunity. Abdelaziz expressed disgust at how McGregor conducting business in the public eye.
“First of all, you know, as a man, the golden rule is if you have a private conversation with another man, you should never put this online,” Abdelaziz said. “This is a complete – a made-b*tch, you understand? This is like a real-life b*tch, like I’ve always been saying for all these years. I have a lot of text messages about people I don’t like, but I will never put it out there because it’s not even right to put it out there – it’s wrong.
“Second of all, January 2020 – actually, December 2019, we wanted to fight Conor. Conor said he’s not ready yet. When [Gaethje] heard he wanted to fight in January, Justin Gaethje, he was higher ranked than [Donald] ‘Cowboy’ [Cerrone] by far, and he choose to fight Cowboy instead of Justin. Justin called him out on social media. Not one time we saw Conor respond to him.”
