American Kickboxing Academy coach Javier Mendez believes
Conor
McGregor hasn’t been the same since fighting Khabib
Nurmagomedov.
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Islam
Makhachev recently expressed interest in facing McGregor,
backtracking on his previous stance. Asked about the reason behind
Makhachev’s interest in McGregor, Mendez, who has coached both
Makhachev and Nurmagomedov at AKA, stated the obvious: a massive
payday and instant stardom.
“Massive fight, massive amount of money. And at the end of the day
when you’re a champion, when you’re a prize fighter, you fight for
the prize, the money,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “So, it’s a massive fight for Islam,
it will bring up his stock tremendously. Conor definitely brings
that to the table regardless of whether you like him or don’t like
him.”
While Makhachev is open to fighting McGregor, the lightweight champ
is extremely dismissive of the Irishman, who he believes is well
past his prime., Mendez also believes “Notorious” hasn’t been the
same since his title loss against Nurmagomedov at
UFC 229 in 2018.
“He’s [McGregor] the lottery ticket for a lot of these guys, you
know,“ Mendez said. „Why do you even have guys that are much
heavier calling him out, ‘Oh he’s heavy now, let me call him out.’
Yeah you know, he changes their lives because of the money and the
fame that comes with the fight. It’s a big deal, we all want that
prize. He has it, he is that prize, he knows it. But the problem
is, like Islam has said, he doesn’t think he [McGregor] is the same
fighter he was way back then when he was beating Jose Aldo,
Chad
Mendes and all those other guys, Eddie
Alvarez. He was the man and then he met the hype, Khabib, that
was the real hype. And so then I don’t think he’s been the same
since. I really don’t. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. I
think he hasn’t been the same since the Khabib fight.”
After a massive build-up, McGregor challenged Nurmagomedov for the
lightweight title in the main event at UFC 229, which remains the
highest-earning
Ultimate Fighting Championship event in history. McGregor went
on to suffer a fourth-round submission loss against the Dagestani
icon. While the Irishman bounced back with a TKO win over Donald
Cerrone, he went on to suffer consecutive stoppage losses
against Dustin
Poirier along with a leg break that sidelined him for years.
The former UFC double champ is finally scheduled to return to
action after a three-year hiatus against Michael
Chandler in the main event at
UFC 303 on June 29.