‘I Want to Fight Real Guys’: Khabib on Possible Rematch With Conor McGregor

The reigning UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, said he is not interested in a rematch with Irishman Conor McGregor, instead interested in fighting “the real guys,” Buzz reported Saturday.

“This guy [McGregor] have to come back and make nine or 10-fight win streak. Then we gonna fight,” he said in an interview with ESPN. “Maybe people who watch this interview, they think, 'Oh, he thinks about this, but when UFC asks this guy to fight Conor for millions of dollars, this guy is gonna take it.' No. Fight. Come back and show who you are.”

According to Khabib, he would like to fight Tony Ferguson or Dustin Poirier, whom he referred to as “real guys.”

He said he would like to fight Georges St-Pierre, whom he called “one of the greatest athletes ever,” if St-Pierre is interested.

“I don't want to fight with a guy who never wins,” Khabib said about McGregor.

He disclosed that he speaks with UFC boss Dana White from time to time, who Khabib noted keeps floating the idea of McGregor rematch.

“Dana, no need to call me. Why he have to call me about this fight?” Khabib said. “We talk with Dana sometimes, he's a good guy, but don't talk with me about this crazy fight.”

In the October 2018 UFC 229 event, Khabib forced McGregor into tapping out, but was provoked by the Irishman’s cornerman Dillon Danis into climbing out of the octagon, which resulted in a nasty brawl between the two teams. Both fighters were temporarily disqualified following the event.

Speaking in the interview, Khabib disclosed his feelings towards McGregor and the team he developed after that brawl, speculating that if he meets anyone of the team out in the street, there will be a fight and it won’t be pretty.

“Even if we see [each other] somewhere, we’re going to fight, 100 percent. It doesn’t matter if someone goes to jail or something like this. I’m not scared about this. If someone has to go to jail, they go to jail.  They go to hospital and we’ll go to police. That’s it,” he explained.

Tony Ferguson won the interim lightweight champion title after McGregor was stripped of his title due to inactivity in 2017. Poirier is the incumbent interim lightweight champion, with Khabib set to defend his title against him on 7 September, next Saturday.