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“The Ultimate Fighter” franchise could have been
resurrected in a major way with Khabib
Nurmagomedov and Conor
McGregor as coaches, but the reigning lightweight king turned
that opportunity down, according to manager Ali Abdelaziz.
“Last week Dana White called me,” Abdelaziz told TMZ Sports. “He
said, ‘Ali, what do you think if Khabib win, him and Conor do ‘The
Ultimate Fighter’ on ESPN?’ This is breaking news. I said, ‘I don’t
know. I’ll think about it.’ And he said, of course, [vice versa] if
Justin win.
“It would be Khabib vs. Conor on The Ultimate Fighter, coaching. It
would have been f—ing huge. Probably would have went to the
hospital because he would have beat his ass and his whole team. Or
Justin
Gaethje vs. [McGregor].”
However, Abdelaziz claims that Nurmagomedov wasn’t interested in
coaching opposite McGregor if he defeats Justin
Gaethje at UFC 254 on Oct. 24. There remains the possibility
that Gaethje could accept the fight with McGregor if he is
victorious, however.
“I talked with Khabib yesterday,” Abelaziz said. “He said, ‘This
man is human trash. He’s like garbage. When you touch s—t, you
smell s—t.’ He said, ‘He doesn’t earn the fight. You understand? He
doesn’t earn the fight.’
“Listen, if Justin wins, whatever, and he wants the easy payday,
yeah, go ahead and fight Conor if you want. But I don’t know if
even Conor still in the conversations because Justin said, ‘I gotta
give him an opportunity,’ but he didn’t want the fight.”
McGregor made headlines recently for sharing a private conversation
with UFC president Dana White regarding potential fight options for
2020. White was not pleased with that violation of trust, and not
surprisingly, it didn’t sit well with Abdelaziz, either.
“First of all, you know, as a man, the golden rule is if you have a
private conversation with another man, you should never put this
online,” Abdelaziz said. “This is a complete – a made-bitch, you
understand? This is like a real-life bitch, like I’ve always been
saying for all these years. I have a lot of text messages about
people I don’t like, but I will never put it out there because it’s
not even right to put it out there – it’s wrong.
“Second of all, January 2020 – actually, December 2019, we wanted
to fight Conor. Conor said he’s not ready yet. When [Gaethje] heard
he wanted to fight in January, Justin
Gaethje, he was higher ranked than [Donald] ‘Cowboy’ [Cerrone]
by far, and he choose to fight Cowboy instead of Justin. Justin
called him out on social media. Not one time we saw Conor respond
to him.”
While McGregor’s loss to Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 229
remains the promotion’s highest selling pay-per-view, it appears
the Dagestani has no interest in running it back — no matter the
circumstances and no matter how lucrative it might be.
“Hey, if he wants to do “The Ultimate Fighter “with Kamaru
Usman, he can,” Abdelaziz said. “If he wants to do “The
Ultimate Fighter “with Khamzat
Chimaev, yes he can. If Justin choose to, that’s OK too.
“He can forget about Khabib. He can forget about the rematch. Done.
Dead. Never. Khabib will never fight him.”
