UFC President Dana White has made it abundantly clear that if lightweight champion Khabib Numragomedov beats Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 on April 18, then he will take on former dual titleholder Conor McGregor in the biggest rematch in MMA history.
While McGregor knows sooner or later, they will meet again, it appears the Nurmagomedov isn't too interested.
Nurmagomedov's manager Ali Abdelaziz told ESPN at Saturday's UFC 247 that Nurmagomedov wants to make McGregor earn the opportunity instead of just one 40-second win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.
"Conor needs to earn things," Abdelaziz said to ESPN. "He was a champion. He needs to earn things. Khabib really, really wants to make him earn it. It doesn't matter, because what he says. We have a really, really tough fight. Everybody forgets about Tony, dismissing him. Khabib has been training for three months straight, and he has two more months."
Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in the fourth round at UFC 229 in October 2018. The lead-up got personal: Nurmagomedov, along with his some of his friends and training partners, cornered McGregor's training partner Artem Lobov the week of UFC 223 in April 2018 and slapped him. Seeing what happened, McGregor, along with an entourage of his own, flew to New York. The Irishman went into the bowels of the Barclays Center after the fighters met with the media two days before the event and threw a dolly through a bus window that Nurmagomedov was sitting in.
As the bout inched closer, McGregor started bringing up Nurmagomedov's Islamic faith and family, including comments about his wife. The result of those comments led to a brawl with both fight camps inside the T-Mobile Arena after the fight concluded.
"Let's be real; we don't like this guy," Abdelaziz said. "We're never gonna like him. Probably every time we see him, there's gonna be problems. He said things about family, things about religion, things about race. He crossed the line. You can't cross the line with [Nurmagomedov]."
The first Nurmagoemedov-McGregor clash did a reported 2.4 million pay-per-view. A sequel would likely shatter the mark and make both combatants more money than they could ever imagine, but it doesn't appear none of the financial aspects matter to the "Eagle."
"Listen, there's a lot of money for Khabib if Khabib fights Conor," Abdelaziz said." "But everything is not about money. Especially with Khabib."