Russian fighter Habib Nurmagomedov commented on the statement of UFC President Dana White that he refused to fight in November.
"Dana White said that I declined the offer [to fight] in November. He's lying, it was not. Let him show us the correspondence when we discussed this fight. In New York, a big tournament [UFC 217] is planned, there are a lot of our, Russian-speaking, almost two million people from the post-Soviet space. Why did he do this? There are reasons. At first I did not understand this. October 7 at the UFC 216 was supposed to be the main event, Frankie Edgar - [UFC champion] Max Holloway. Holloway dropped out and they wanted to put Cody Garbrandt's fight against [UFC champion] TJ Jay Dillashaw. Cody was not ready to fight at that moment. There was not a single champion who could fight at UFC 216. But this is PPV, it should be headed by the title fight. They tell me: "Fight October 7". [But] I already gave my answer.
By November, I would have been ready. On April 22 I had an operation. I began to train on August 1. August, September and October are three months. Do you want me after the operation, after the treatment, go to the title fight with two months of preparation? On the most important battle of my life? For 5 rounds? After the operation, I did not train for six months. I said: "We agreed on the November." I was told: "If you do not fight, then we do with Lee for a temporary title." I say: "Do it, you are the organizers there." Well, then was [talk] that I had rejected the fight with Barbosa. There was no such proposal at all. That I did not take the fight in November. This too was not.
I agree that I am an uncomfortable fighter for the organization. My injuries have recently been increased. In the last battle I did not make weight. I admit, this is my mistake. But do not lie that I declined the fight. This is generally wrong, ugly, so it is impossible. Proposals for Barbosa were not at all," Nurmagomedov said.
In that particular aspect, these past few years of MMA have been awful. Fighters openly denying fightings or taking as few fights as possible towards a title shot. Tall about money fights yadda yadda but where are awesome fights that could be happening? We are missing out on some good ones and people age fast in MMA.
At the samw time I wish the athletes would get paid what they deserve so this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
I don't think anyone actually believes Dana anymore. He'll say whatever he wants
While I agree, I don’t think Khabib has much room to talk with his track record.
He has all the tools to be champion, and be pushed throughout Russia, and be rich as hell… and he’s made it to the Octagon just three times since 2013.
I don't think anyone actually believes Dana anymore. He'll say whatever he wants
While I agree, I don’t think Khabib has much room to talk with his track record.
He has all the tools to be champion, and be pushed throughout Russia, and be rich as hell… and he’s made it to the Octagon just three times since 2013.
His track record is busted in terms of actually making it into the ring though, not lying
In that particular aspect, these past few years of MMA have been awful. Fighters openly denying fightings or taking as few fights as possible towards a title shot. Tall about money fights yadda yadda but where are awesome fights that could be happening? We are missing out on some good ones and people age fast in MMA.
At the samw time I wish the athletes would get paid what they deserve so this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
they age fast when they go into battles that they are not ready for.
In that particular aspect, these past few years of MMA have been awful. Fighters openly denying fightings or taking as few fights as possible towards a title shot. Tall about money fights yadda yadda but where are awesome fights that could be happening? We are missing out on some good ones and people age fast in MMA.
At the samw time I wish the athletes would get paid what they deserve so this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
they age fast when they go into battles that they are not ready for.
They also age fast in the eyes of MMA fans pulling stuff like this. I think if Khabib hadn’t cut so much he would be more prepared. Signing a contract then pulling out the Wednesday of fight week is unacceptable whem it happens more than once due to a fighter being unable to cut.
This sort of thing is a real head-scratcher for me.
Why does Dana feel the need to shit on his employees? In this example here with Khabib, it really doesn’t make sense.
As we can see from this thread, many fans are having problems connecting with Khabib now, they are having trouble getting on board with him and believing in him as a dangerous fighter, a future title challenger.
Isn’t this where a PROMOTER should step in, see this problem, and start helping Khabib get back in fans good books? It would make the promoter more money to do this. Pump him up to the press, and also talk with him 1 on 1 and get things sorted out.
Instead, it seems Dana is more concerned on looking like a tough guy, calling the shots and being all “alpha”.
The only possible explanations I can think of is Dana has inside word that Khabib won’t be in the UFC much longer, so he is already trying to devalue him. Or, the more likely explanation, seeing as this isn’t the first time Dana has done this, is that Dana’s ego is too big.