In the aftermath of his 40 second KO victory over Donald Cerrone on Saturday night, Conor McGregor said that if he gets the chance to rematch his old rival Khabib Nurmagomedov he wants it to happen in the lightweight champion’s own homeland in Russia.
“It would be like something out of a Rocky movie. So I’ll be very eager to do that,” McGregor told the media at his UFC 246 post-fight scrum.
“I want to create spectacles for the people. That’s one hell of a spectacle. Even me going out there in Moscow that time,” he continued. “The place shut down, the world took notice. Your mama saying I wasn’t allowed out there, I wasn’t supposed to be out there. They were running the streets screaming my name.
“I’m more Russian than that man. So I would love to go to Moscow and compete there.”
However, at his own UFC 246 post-fight media scrum, UFC President Dana White was adamant there’s no chance that fight will take place in Russia.
“Nope. It ain’t happening in Moscow,” White said. “There’s many, many reasons why it wouldn’t happen in Moscow.”
No doubt security concerns would be high up on that list of reasons, and so White would be looking to other high-profile venues around the globe, mentioning the likes of Madison Square Garden in New York, Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Texas and Wembley Stadium in the UK, while a tried-and-tested option like the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas could also be a possibility, but appears to be less likely due to Nurmagomedov’s issues with the commission there.
