Old rivalries die hard and when Khabib Nurmagomedov referenced an old quote of Conor McGregor’s in a new interview, ‘The Notorious’ was quick to challenge his nemesis to a rematch.
“Right now we have current UFC and Bellator lightweight champions,” Nurmagomedov had said in reference to Bellator’s Usman Nurmagomedov and the UFC’s Islam Makhachev, who are both part of the AKA team. “This is amazing.
“I hear a long time ago when one guy was talking about ‘We’re here to take over’ but we’re here to take over.”
McGregor then retaliated with a post on Twitter in which he claimed Khabib was scared to give him a rematch, despite having dominated him in their first encounter back in 2018.
“I fight on!” McGregor wrote. “Your fathers plan is never complete because you quit and ran, brother. God bless. I’m still here if you wanna go again. But your fear of defeat means you’ve already lost. Run from it all you want. We all lose in the end. Death takes us all. I fear nothing but God ☘️.”
The submission win over McGregor was Nurmagomedov’s first ever successful lightweight title defense, and he’d go on to add two more to that tally against Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, before announcing his retirement in 2020, by which stage he’d amassed a perfect 29-0 record, leaving him in the conversation as one of the greatest MMA fighters of all-time.
As for McGregor, he’d go on to quickly TKO Donald Cerrone in his next outing, but has since suffered back-to-back losses against Dustin Poirier and is currently still out of action after breaking his leg in their second fight in July of last year.
Nurmagomedov has repeatedly stated that he has no interest in making a comeback and is now becoming a very successful MMA coach, so there appears to be little change that McGregor will ever be able to realize his ambition of getting a chance to avenge that loss.
