Khabib Nurmagamedov Has Sensationally Accused the UFC of Fixing Some of Conor McGregor’s Fights…
Now it’s getting serious. Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagamedov are currently in the midst of preparations for their fight on October 6. They’ll headline the main event of UFC 229 in Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena.
As their fight draws closer, you can expect the intensity of their rivalry to heighten. The pair’s clashes in the past have landed McGregor with community service and restraining orders. Surprisingly, it’s Nurmagamedov and his team who have been the most vocal about this fight.
The first Russian UFC lightweight champion has targeted an aspect of McGregor’s fights that are sure to strike a nerve. If there’s one thing he can’t stand, it’s the accusation that he has been handed an easy ride by the UFC. Now, Khabib has taken it even further and accused the promotion of fixing some of his fights.
Too Easy
Khabib specifically spoke about McGregor’s championship fight against Eddie Alvarez. It was expected that ‘The Underground King’ would try to implement his takedown game against the Irishman. Instead, he tried to stand with the Notorious and was planted on his backside numerous times before getting knocked out. The Eagle thinks this is fishy.
“I don’t care about him,” Khabib told the press. “You guys know his Uncle Dana give him a gift. He jumped over all contenders and he fought for the title. I do not understand this fight [McGregor vs. Alvarez], he catches him a few times and he falls down—to me this is a fake fight.
I no understand this fight you know—UFC gives him this fight like seven, six weeks before the fight,” Nurmagomedov said. “He catches him a few times and he falls down. I do not understand—a lot of people have a lot of questions about this fight.”
Really?
Well, that’s certainly a unique perspective. Most people watching that fight believe that McGregor put in arguably the most complete and effective performance of his career against the then-lightweight champion of the world.
However, this isn’t the first time a McGregor result has been called into question. His rematch against Nate Diaz was a very tight decision that went McGregor’s way. Some people believe that the Stockton fighter did enough to win.
Going further back, there’s his knockout of Chad Mendes in the penultimate seconds of Round 2 of their interim title fight. Some conspiracy theorists even believe that the Jose Aldo 13 second victory was a fix. We’re not saying that just that success will always be questioned in combat sports.
Dana Disagrees
Unsurprisingly, UFC President Dana White has a very different opinion of the fighting pride of Ireland. In a recent press conference, he emphatically defended McGregor’s ability, and said on the UFC Unfiltered podcast:
“It’s funny to say this because of how popular he is and what a huge star he is, but I think Conor McGregor is one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC. Every time Conor McGregor comes out to fight somebody new and it’s a wrestler or it’s whatever, this is the fight that Conor is going to lose. He said that he would knock out Jose Aldo the way he did it, he said he would do it in the first round.
“A lot of people picked him to lose to Eddie Alvarez because of Eddie Alvarez’s style and wrestling. Look how he looked there. Leading up to the fight when he fought Chad Mendes — Chad Mendes is a wrestler, everybody believed that he would do that. Then after he won everybody said that Chad Mendes didn’t have enough time to train for it. The list goes on and on.”
