Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor | Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor have never seen eye to eye, but that doesn’t mean the retired UFC star has given up on his rival.
The past few years have seen McGregor featured in headlines for all the wrong reasons, including recently being found liable for sexual assault in a civil suit stemming from a 2018 incident in Dublin (a verdict McGregor failed to appeal). Even in his prime, McGregor earned a reputation as a “bad boy” for his outside-of-the-cage antics, and his feud with Nurmagomedov included a violent attack on a bus transporting the former UFC lightweight champion in April 2018 in which McGregor threw a moving dolly threw a window.
On Saturday, Nurmagomedov spoke at a Muslim religion gathering at Tilles Center in New York (streamed live by influencer Sneako on Parti), and when he was asked about McGregor, he suggested the Irishman seek salvation.
“I don’t want to mention his name,” Nurmagomedov said. “This is punishment. This is punishment and [McGregor] keeps doing this, keeps doing this, keeps doing this. Everything that happened with these old people, woman this, alcohol this, drugs, everything. This is punishment. ... But the most beautiful part of this, Allah always gives for us—it doesn’t matter anybody, everybody—[a] chance to come back. Always, in this world, a chance to come back.”
McGregor’s rap sheet also includes an assault charge from 2019, when he punched an elderly man in a Dublin pub, and he is currently the defendant in another civil suit for an alleged sexual assault that took place in Miami in 2023. He was also involved in an embarrassing social media incident in July when rapper Azealia Banks leaked alleged nude photos of McGregor.
Nurmagomedov, who settled his beef with McGregor with a fourth-round submission victory in their lightweight title fight at UFC 229, maintains that though McGregor’s reputation has taken a severe hit since he last fought in July 2021, he has a responsibility to clean up his act for his legion of fans and followers.
“This is the most beautiful thing,” Nurmagomedov said. “It doesn’t matter how you bad, Allah is going to give you a chance to always come back. I think he has a chance and he has to change the way how he’s living. Why am I talking about this? ... If he’s going to change, he can change with him so many lives, too. And that’s why I wish him to change himself.”
Watch the clip below, courtesy of Championship Rounds.
Khabib speaks about Conor McGregor:
“Allah always give us chance to come back… doesn’t matter how you bad...
I think he have chance, and he have to change the way how he’s living.
If he gonna change, he can change with him so many other lives too. That’s why I wish him to… pic.twitter.com/fN4oGNk0Qn
LAS VEGAS — UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman joins MMA Fighting’s José Youngs on radio row at UFC X to open up on his sober life and look ahead to A24’s The Smashing Machine movie and reflect on “The Dark Ages” of MMA.
“The Hangman” is currently on the mend after undergoing hand surgery this past March, but when he returns, he’s hoping to face top lightweight contender Tsarukyan in a bout that could produce a title challenger for current champion Ilia Topuria.
In an interview with Submission Radio, Hooker laid out how he expects the division to shake out in the near future and where a potential fight with Tsarukyan might fit in.
“Probably [Max Holloway’s] got one more I think [before rematching Topuria],” Hooker said. “Obviously, [Islam Makhachev’s] going up to welterweight. Ilia will probably fight [Justin] Gaethje. That leaves Holloway, and Holloway ain’t going to fight Arman, no one wants to see that. Holloway will probably fight [Charles] Oliveira, Gaethje will fight for the title, and then that leaves my man Arman, that’s the fight I want. That’s the fight that makes sense.
“They told him one more. He’s turned down [Mateusz] Gamrot, who’s ranked one before me. Let’s be honest, [Tsarukyan’s] a walking bag of sand, but he is a very good fighter and now all those big name guys, they’ve got a good excuse to not fight him. Ilia said he’s not going to fight him. The UFC says that he needs one more. And between Arman and me, there’s Oliveira, they’ve already had that fight. ... [Tsarukyan’s] stuck fighting me. He’s got to fight me to get back in the mix and to get a title shot.”
Hooker and Tsarukyan are both on win streaks, though their contender status is murky. In his most recent outing, Hooker won a split decision over Mateusz Gamrot in a Fight of the Night-winning bout, but has not competed since August. Tsarukyan’s situation is even trickier as he was set to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 311 this past January, but a back injury forced him out of the contest a day before fight night and the expectation is that he needs a win to earn a championship opportunity again.
According to Hooker, his interest in fighting Tsarukyan is not personal and he understands why others might be reluctant to face him.
“That’s always the fight I want and not because he’s a prick and I hate him, but because I genuinely that he’s the hardest fight and all those big name guys have an excuse to not fight him because I think he is the best at winning fights,” Hooker said of Tsarukyan. “He’s not necessarily the most dangerous fighter—Oliveira is very dangerous, Gaethje is very dangerous—I think he’s the best at winning fights and so a lot of these guys have a justifiable reason to avoid fighting him and so that’s been my approach since I first stepped foot in the UFC is that I want to fight the best guys. I think Arman’s the best guy, so that’s the fight that I want and that’s the fight that I think they’re going to make happen.”
As much as Hooker respects Tsarukyan, that hasn’t stopped him from firing back at his potential opponent on social media. Hooker recently called for fights with Charles Oliveira and Tsarukyan, though his callout of Tsarukyan was considerably less polite.
Someone wake up Charlie Olives and tell him we fighting in November.
“That was because of our last discussion,” Hooker said, explaining his online jab. “He said, ‘On a side note...’ and he took shots at me out of nowhere. Bro, I’m the only one that’s going to fight you, you dumb f*ck. That’s the fight. I’m the only one that’s going to step up and fight the guy. Who else is going to fight the guy?
“I just like the sound of that New York card. Obviously, it would have been cool to fight in Perth and to go back to Perth and to headline with Arman in Perth, but it would have been just eight weeks. New York is 16 weeks. Would have been a bit of a rush for the hand to be good and ready [for UFC Perth], but I still was going to do it because I wanted to do it for the fans and do it for the UFC and I would have rushed back and I would have fought early and I would have fought when the hand wasn’t ready and I would have fought still kind of recovering from that injury.”
In Saturday’s flyweight main event at UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Taira completely outclassed Hyun Sung Park, submitting the short-notice replacement early in the second round with a neck crank to bounce back from his first-ever loss and improve his pro record to 17-1.
In his post-fight interview—with some prodding from cageside commentator Michael Bisping—Taira called for a fight with current flyweight king Alexandre Pantoja. He went on to further argue his case later in the evening.
“I can say 100 percent my skill is higher than the champion,” Taira said at the evening’s post-fight press conference via a Japanese translator.
Just 25 years old, Taira has impressed in his first eight UFC appearances, compiling a 7-1 record and earning himself a top 10 spot in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings. He was originally scheduled to face fellow contender Amir Albazi, but earlier this week Albazi was ruled out of Saturday’s event after not being medically cleared to compete.
Instead, Taira fought Park, who entered their matchup with a 10-0 record. Given his level of self-belief, it shouldn’t be surprising Taira wasn’t thrown off by the opponent change.
“The opponent changed,” Taira said. “It was Hyun Sung Park, I knew him from winning the Road to UFC, but I’m the best in the flyweight [division]. I’m very confident and I believe that I’m the best, so not a huge issue for me.”
Pantoja’s next title defense is expected to take place against Joshua Van, who is coming off of a spectacular decision win over Brandon Royval, the fighter who handed Taira his first loss. Asked if he expects to have to wait for the winner of the still-to-be-scheduled Pantoja vs. Van fight, Taira said he’d like to be booked for a fight on the same card as that matchup.
Taira pointed to the Royval loss as a pivotal moment in his young career and credited his team for his successful turnaround.
“From my last fight I learned my weakness,” Taira said. “But my team, everyone from my team still believed that I would be a champion, so I just kept working hard, promising that I’ll be back.”
The $375 million settlement is being dispersed to fighters who competed for the promotion between 2010 and 2017 with Moicano among those due for a payout. While attorneys handling the settlement stated that approximately 97 percent of fighters due funds are getting paid, there are a few holdouts like Moicano who passed on the money.
UFC legend Matt Brown is among those fighters due to get paid from the lawsuit settlement and while he doubts Moicano is actually turning down the money, he believes even the public statement speaks to a bigger issue facing athletes today.
“I question whether that’s true or not, too. I think Moicano may be saying that in public but I don’t know if that’s truly the case in reality, though,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I question that strongly knowing some inside things.
“There’s very, very few people that haven’t signed up to get their money. I doubt that Moicano’s one of them to be honest. It doesn’t make him look better saying that. I don’t think anybody is like ‘wow, bro, you’re f*cking brand loyal, good for you!’ No, everybody’s like you’re a f*cking idiot for this.”
Moicano explained his decision to turn down the money after stating that he “agreed to the terms of the contract” and those terms paid him at a rate that was “a huge deal” for him.
After spending 15 years in the UFC, Brown understands that loyalty towards the promotion only goes so far, especially with the way things are run now. During the start of his UFC career, Brown felt like the organization was a family with only a few key executives at the top making decisions but that’s no longer the case after Endeavor purchased the organization for over $4 billion back in 2016.
Since then, Brown says the UFC is no different from any other corporation out there on a mission to make money and treating everything as a business.
In fact, the $375 million settlement is proof that the UFC is even treating the lawsuit as a business move because the potential losses from going to trial and losing could have been much greater.
“It’s a corporation now. You’re not changing Dana’s day at all [by taking the money],” Brown said. “Once the lawsuit was settled, Dana [White] did not think it for one second after that. He claims he didn’t think about it before that but I doubt that’s actually the case. But after it was settled, it was a drop in the bucket for them, the amount of money. It’s a f*cking write off for them, too, of all things, which is not a write off for us. We have to pay taxes on it but it’s a write off for the UFC, which is insanity to me.
“It’s from a corporation. It’s like if Apple had a class action lawsuit against them and had to pay out and then you said ‘No, I love my iPhone.’ It’s literally the same thing. The money’s already paid out.”
Brown believes fighters attempting to curry favor with the UFC for any reason speaks to a much bigger problem in the sport.
Unlike say the NFL with 32 teams all competing against each other and vying for the same pool of players, which then leads to bigger and bigger contracts being offered and paid, the UFC has set up a much different structure.
As the largest and only profitable MMA company currently operating in the sport, Brown knows fighters are all trying to compete for the UFC and that ultimately gives the organization a massive leg up when it comes to negotiations and how much money is being paid to the athletes.
“What this sport has become, the way that the UFC has built it is not proper,” Brown said. “What it leads to the way it’s built — if you’re Dana White, it’s proper, if you’re on the business side, you sold your business for $4 billion, you did the right thing for yourself and your company. The business doesn’t care about doing things right. The business cares about making money and that’s what the business is there for.
“The promoters should be competing for the fighters. With the way the UFC has been structured and built is the fighters are competing for Dana’s acknowledgment and Dana’s love. That is completely opposite the way it should be.”
Brown believes it all boils down to the central problem plaguing fighters right now, especially when somebody like Moicano is just passing on money due to him.
“Moicano, rather than taking money that he fought for as a prizefighter, he wants Dana’s love and acknowledgment more than the money, thinking that it’s going to get him more money in the future,’ Brown said. “That should be a very f*cking clear sign of how flipped this script is and how f*cked up it really is.”
