Dana White had hopes of reviving the UFC’s reality competition The Ultimate Fighter this year. He wanted to put one of the most heated rivalries in MMA at the center of the series and make Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov coaches of the respective teams.
Nurmagomedov is pretty clear. That is not going to happen.
He told ESPN’s Brett Okomatto that he isn’t going to be a part of anything Conor McGregor is attached to. As far as Nurmagomedov is concerned, the two fighters don’t need to have even a professional relationship.
“I don’t want to give him this,” Nurmagomedov said. “I never give him this. Even if they give me $5 billion — even if they gave me the UFC — I never do this. This is good attention for him.”
As the media partner of the UFC, ESPN+ certainly hopes Nurmagomedov sees his way to changing his mind. A new season of The Ultimate Fighter would be the first in two years. It makes sense that ESPN and Dana White would want to make a splash. Involving the two enemies could certainly generate a few subscriptions.
The real goal of course would be for a new season of The Ultimate Fighter to lead to a Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor rematch, which could make a major impact on the UFC’s and ESPN+’s pay-per-view business.
The two last fought in 2018. The lead up to their match at UFC 229 features McGregor and his team making some pretty racist comments about Nurmagomedov and his family. After Nurmagomedov forced McGregor into submission, he jumped over the cage to confront McGregor’s team.
It is understandable that Nurmagomedov feels like he is done with McGregor. The guy crossed a personal line and Nurmagomedov not only beat him, but forced him to physically give up. Still, it also makes sense for McGregor’s camp and Dana White to try to keep the option of a rematch on the table.
Nurmagomedov will put his undefeated record on the line against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. Once that is over, Okomatto writes that he doesn’t expect talk of another fight with McGregor to just go away, saying it “would do massive business for the UFC, as it would pit two of its biggest stars against one another, in a matchup that has witnessed some infamously bad blood.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov is the best MMA fighter ever. He showed this. He showed this more than a dozens of times. He is just the best!