sportbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Khabib Nurmagomedov Predicts What Round He Will Stop Justin Gaethje At UFC 254

Khabib Nurmagomedov Predicts What Round He Will Stop Justin Gaethje At UFC 254

The lightweight champion is full of confidence...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Khabib Nurmagomedov has predicted how his upcoming fight with Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.

Gaethje, who earned a shot at the lightweight title by beating Tony Ferguson in impressive fashion to become interim champion at UFC 249 back in May, has been touted as an opponent who could cause Khabib some problems stylistically.

But even after a long lay-off since his win over Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 over a year ago, the undefeated Dagestani fighter is as confident as ever and believes he will finish the bout in the third or fourth round.

"He's gonna be kickboxing and wrestling, like [a] mix, and my goal is to make him tired, he told BT Sport.

"I'm gonna make him tired and maybe in number three or round number four, my plan is to finish him."

In an interview with MMA Fighting, 'The Eagle' revealed that UFC president Dana White has something big planned for him if he gets past Gaethje - though he's not looking past October 24 at the moment.

"Dana told me after this fight that he has something special for me," he said.

"But I told him, please keep this, after fight we're going to talk. He say (he) has very big things after this fight for me. We'll see.

"Right now, I'm focused on Justin Gaethje.

"Justin is a very tough opponent, very tough guy. He follows his dream. He's very hungry. He just beat a very tough opponent. I don't want to underestimate him. I am focused on October 24."

White recently claimed that he wanted to have the Khabib and Conor McGregor as team captains in a huge relaunch of the The Ultimate Fighter series and they would then do battle inside the Octagon for a second time.

However, the Irishman's recent social media activity has put a stop to that happening.

"[Khabib] was gonna do it until Conor did all this sh*t," White told Barstool Sports in an interview.

"That's what I was saying. I felt like I was in a good place and we were going to get that done.

"We were going to do The Ultimate Fighter on ESPN and f**king do the rematch but Conor blew that. Yeah, Khabib said 'f**k him'. That was it."

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, UFC News, MMA News, UFC, MMA