Why Khabib Nurmagomedov Isn’t Afraid of His Arch Nemesis Conor McGregor

Unless something terrible happens, Khabib Nurmagomedov will be fighting Tony Ferguson on April 18th at UFC 249. Nurmagomedov, despite being called out by Conor McGregor, his rival, is focused solely on beating Ferguson right now. Here’s why Nurmagomedov only cares about beating Ferguson instead of McGregor.

What happened between these two fighters?

There’s been a lot of bad blood between the two men and their teams, and it’s been going on for some time now. First, Nurmagomedov slapped Artem Lobov, one of McGregor’s best friends. Then, McGregor infamously attacked the bus that Nurmagomedov was on with a dolly. While McGregor failed to do any damage to Nurmagomedov, he did end up getting arrested for the attack. 

This series of events forced the UFC to book the fight between the two men so that they can settle their beef inside the octagon. And by the time the cage doors closed and the two men were free to fight each other, it immediately became clear what the fight would look like. Nurmagomedov used his famous wrestling abilities and just dominated McGregor. 

After the fight though, the two men and their teams still didn’t have enough. The two men and their teams brawled after the referee called a stop to the fight. This led to a lot of fines and suspensions, but it didn’t stop there.

Since the fight, both men have been taking shots at each other on social media and on interviews. But, while McGregor may want a rematch, Nurmagomedov doesn’t really care about McGregor anymore.

Why Khabib Nurmagomedov isn’t afraid of Conor McGregor

Nurmagomedov, as talkSPORT explained, has no reason to be afraid of McGregor. In fact, Nurmagomedov is even surprised that anyone wants to see a rematch between him and McGregor. And his reasoning is simple. Their first fight at UFC 229 wasn’t even close. It was pure domination from Nurmagomedov for the entire fight. 

As talkSPORT mentioned, Nurmagomedov even claims that he made McGregor give up. Because of that, the only reason that Nurmagomedov thinks that anyone wants to see a rematch is to watch the craziness of another fight between the two men again. 

Nurmagomedov knows that in a rematch between him and McGregor, the fight will go the same way. As a result, Nurmagomedov has no fears over fighting McGregor, because he’s already won once before, and in dominant fashion too. That said, Nurmagomedov is usually emotionless, but he did show some emotions when he faced off against Ferguson recently. 

Why Khabib Nurmagomedov is focused on fighting Tony Ferguson

Tony Ferguson has been as dominant of a fighter as Nurmagomedov has been, and both men are on very long win streaks. But, on top of that, both men have been scheduled to fight each other four other times in the past. Each time though, their fight was canceled. Nurmagomedov really wants the fight to happen, and so does Ferguson. 

That may be why when the two men faced off, DAZN says that Nurmagomedov broke from his usually calm demeanor and acted out on stage. Not only did Nurmagomedov kick Ferguson’s championship belt off the stage, but he also hurled some insults back at Ferguson, who was instigating the whole thing by insulting Nurmagomedov in the first place. 

Among other things, Nurmagomedov said to Ferguson that he’s “not a real Mexican,” and that he’s “a California guy” rather than a Mexican. Ferguson only had laughs for Nurmagomedov.

He said, “It pissed him off, didn’t it?” and that he’ll “see him soon.” This uncharacteristic outburst from Nurmagomedov just shows how much he wants to fight Ferguson instead of fighting McGregor again.