UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagamedov Has Dropped a Huge Hint That The UFC Are Set to Announce His Return Soon…
If you’re an MMA fight fan you probably want two things. The first is that we finally get a major fight card without any cancellations. That would be very nice. The second is that Conor McGregor finally makes his comeback and takes on Khabib Nurmagamedov in the biggest lightweight title fight of all time. That would be very nice too.
Well, the signs are getting stronger that an imminent announcement is due. As soon as McGregor’s legal problems are resolved then he’ll be back in the octagon, probably next October. McGregor and Nurmagamedov are taking turns to bait each on social media at the moment. It’s all very mature stuff.
Both Nurmagamedov and his manager Ali Abdelaziz have dropped the strongest hints that this fight is going to happen. Between Instagram and Twitter, we’ve done some MMA math, and it looks like there’s nobody else in ‘The Eagle’s’ line of vision for a next fight.
Short and Sweet
The other day, Khabib released an image of him releasing ground and pound on a wrestling dummy. The caption was short and sweet – ‘SMASH HIM #SOON’ – but the meaning was very clear. We all know who he’s referring to, we just want to know when the ‘soon’ bit comes into play.
It’s most likely that McGregor and Nurmagamedov would fight in at UFC 229, in Las Vegas. That event is slated for October 6. Of course, there’s also the very secretive UFC 228, of which absolutely no information has been released yet. Now that is very interesting indeed. Could the UFC be about to drop a bomb on us?
Cryptic
Conor being Conor couldn’t let Khabib’s post go past him without some response. While his reply was also on Instagram, it was without any caption. It shows him standing shirtless between his wrestling coach Serge Pilulskiey and Moldovan training partner Kosti Gnusarlov.
The three men stare out at the camera defiantly, the implication obvious, that the ‘Notorious’ is ready for whatever Khabib throws at him. We’ll see about that. The Russian has one of the most fearsome reputations in MMA and is currently riding a 26-0 unbeaten streak. Of course, he will have to beat a top contender like McGregor to solidify that status.
You have a better chance of hitting someone with a dolly then defending one of Khabibs take downs. https://t.co/xcBBHfueBW
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) July 4, 2018
Not Subtle
Just in case you think that we’re just speculating here – we’re really not. Nurmagamedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz is one of the fiercest personalities in the sport. He’s also not very good at being subtle. He effectively gave the game away by targeting McGregor on social media with successive tweets aimed at the Irishman’s mediocre wrestling. He wrote:
“Keep working on your wrestling boy. You need at least ten years to defend one of Khabib’s takedowns. You have a better chance of hitting someone with a dolly than defending one of Khabib’s takedowns.”
Harsh. We’ll see how McGregor responds to that. Not exactly the classiest move from a manager, but then Abdelaziz doesn’t really care. All that matters is this rivalry is heating up!
