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Rivalries never seem to die quickly. Especially not with bad blood involved, and the feud between former lightweight champions Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.
In an interview with ESPN, Nurmagomedov took umbrage with how McGregor conducted himself in the lead up to UFC 264 and his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier. “The Eagle” believes that this, along with his antics in the lead up to their fight at UFC 229, showed his true character.
“Money and fame show who you are,” Nurmagomedov told ESPN. “All the time we hear that money and fame change people. No. When money and fame come, these two things show who you are. And what has [McGregor] done? He punched an old guy [in a bar in 2019]. You guys can watch everything he did and understand, it’s just like Dustin said, ‘This guy is a bag of s—.’
“I saw a lot of tweets try to support him. How are you gonna support this guy? When kids, young generation watch him, watch this sport? If you want to promote your fight, promote.”
Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor by fourth-round submission in 2018 before infamously leaping out of the cage to fight his entire team. A melee ensued with members of both teams earning suspensions and fines.
The former champion, who retired and vacated the belt after the death of his father in 2020, also shared his thoughts immediately after the fight saying, “good always defeats evil.”
Now, Nurmagomedov believes that McGregor will no longer be able to compete at the highest level after suffering the gruesome broken tibia in his loss to Poirier on Saturday night.
“Without broken legs, yes, [he could be the same],” Nurmagomedov said. “But with broken legs, he’s never going to kick the same. With him, no, I don’t believe [he’ll return to the top]. Conor have good age [32], but what happened with his mind, legs — this guy is finished, but he’s good for promotion.”