Khabib Nurmagomedov is still sorting through the mess from his post-UFC 229 attack on Conor McGregor‘s team, but that’s not stopping him from thinking about the future. He recently called out Floyd Mayweather and wants to fight him — just like Conor McGregor did.
Nurmagomedov calls out Mayweather
Via MMAFighting.com, Nurmagomedov was recently ringside with Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. With a camera rolling, Nurmagomedov, one arm draped around Ellerbe’s shoulders, called for a fight against Mayweather.
“Hey, let’s go, Floyd. We have to fight now. 50-0 vs. 27-0. Two guys never lose. Let’s go. Why not? Because in the jungle, only one king. Only one king. Of course, I am the king because he cannot drop McGregor but I drop him easily. Let’s go!”
Will we ever actually see Nurmagomedov vs. Mayweather?
Currently, Nurmagomedov is suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission pending an investigation into his attack on McGregor’s team after UFC 229, and his $2 million purse is also being withheld. Additionally, the UFC withdrew his training partner from a match with McGregor’s training partner, and Nurmagomedov was so unhappy that he threatened to cut ties with the UFC.
Whether Nurmagomedov would actually leave the UFC is unknown, but there’s no doubt his star is on the rise. Even ignoring his headline-making attack on McGregor’s team, Nurmagomedov is the first person to ever knock McGregor down in competition. Mayweather easily won his bout with McGregor back in August of 2017, but he couldn’t knock McGregor down. Fighting the first man to do that could be very attractive to Mayweather.
From the looks of that Instagram video, it’s already attractive to the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. The fight between Mayweather and McGregor was the second biggest pay-per-view event of all time, and Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor at UFC 229 set an MMA pay-per-view record. Combining those two events, even without McGregor’s involvement, would mean big money for everyone involved.
Mayweather may have something else in mind, though. In September, he announced that he was coming out of retirement for a rematch of the 2015 bout between him and Manny Pacquiao. But if that doesn’t end up happening, Mayweather has an amazing back-up plan in Nurmagomedov.
