Conor McGregor wouldn’t even let Khabib Nurmagomedov revel in his win over Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Nurmagomedov dominated Poirier by forcing him to submit in the third round of the fight. Nurmagomedov, the Russian lightweight, moved to 28-0 — he believes he should be pound-for-pound No. 1 after his win.
But not long after Nurmagomedov’s victory, McGregor took to social media to bring the attention on himself. McGregor wrote on Twitter: “Book my rematch for Moscow.” Poirier was Nurmagomedov’s first opponent since beating McGregor in October 2018. It’s unlikely McGregor is the Russian’s next opponent. But it’s not out of the question.
UFC president Dana White said that Tony Ferguson is next in line for Nurmagomedov. The two fighters have been scheduled against one another four times going back to 2015. But they’ve never actually fought.
“Tony Ferguson gets the next shot and obviously if for whatever reason Tony can’t take the fight or doesn’t want the fight at that time, then we would figure out what would be next,” White said, via MMA Junkie. “But yeah, Conor would make a lot of sense. Conor McGregor wants that fight really badly and I’m sure the fans would want to see it. So we’ll see how this whole thing plays out.”
Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, was somewhat evasive about the topic of his next fight. He seemed to feel he should have earned the respect of the media with the fight he just finished.
“You know what’s interesting in this sport; even if you’re 28-0 in MMA, 12-0 in UFC, you’re one of the biggest stars, you smash everybody, people talk about how you have to fight with him, you have to fight with him, you have to fight with him. Just give me respect,” he said, via MMA Junkie. “My next opponent is a very good steak, with a burger and double cheese. I want this. With some juice with ice. I want to enjoy it. Give me a couple of days please.”
If the Ferguson-Nurmagomedov booking falls through — like it has so many times before — perhaps McGregor will get what he wants.
