What next for Khabib Nurmagomedov? The Russian extended his undefeated run to 28-0 on Saturday and the answer could be Conor McGregor.
Khabib beat interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 to become the undisputed lightweight champ. The interim title was only needed because of the Russian's six month ban that followed his victory against McGregor last October.
If the champ hoped that would be his last dealings with McGregor for some time he may be wrong. Speaking after the fight on Saturday UFC president Dana White revealed that Tony Ferguson should be the next title contender and if not it will likely be McGregor, saying, "Tony Ferguson is next line (for Khabib) if he accepts the fight. We'll see how this thing plays out, when Khabib will fight again, and if Tony wants to fight...and obviously, if for whatever reason Tony can't take the fight or doesn't want to fight at that time, then we would figure out what's next.
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"But yeah, Conor would make a lot of sense. Conor McGregor wants that fight really badly, and I'm sure the fans would want to see it. So we'll see how this whole thing plays out."
Before Khabib had become lightweight champion he had a fight with Ferguson scheduled four times but on each occasion one of them had to pull out of the fight for different reasons, with the third of those meant to be for an interim title at UFC 209.
El Cucuy last fought in June when he beat Donald Cerrone at UFC 238 with a second round stoppage and is the obvious choice to fight for the title next.
Should that fight not happen then McGregor is an obvious opponent after the fiery rivalry with Khabib led to post fight altercations between members of each man's team and resulted in them both being banned.
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The Notorious has yet to make it back into the octagon and hasn't won a fight in UFC for three years, due in someway to his break for his fight with Floyd Mayweather, leading to the champion saying the former champ needs a 'nine or 10' win streak to earn another title shot.
There is no doubt that the Irishman is determined to get his win back and instantly called for a rematch after Khabib had submitted Poirier in the third round.
Will McGregor get his chance at redemption?
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Khabib Nurmagomedov, Conor Mcgregor, Dustin Poirier, UFC 242, UFC News, MMA News, Tony Ferguson, Lightweight division, MMA, Dana White
