In the UFC, Conor McGregor can pretty much do whatever he pleases. As company president Dana White himself said, “The Notorious” after all, is “worth” all that trouble.
That kind of special treatment was still evident during the UFC 229 presser, when White also called for the staff to give McGregor his two belts for the post-event photos. On Monday’s episode of the Ariel Helwani MMA Show on ESPN, current 155-pound champion Khabib Nurmagomedov had something to say about the UFC executive and the blatant favoritism towards the Irishman.
“Dana needs (to stop kissing his) ass,” Khabib said (transcript via MMAjunkie). “This is what Dana needs. And that’s it. Because how Dana can say, ‘Hey, where is Conor belts?’ He don’t know what happened the last two years? Max Holloway, how many times Max Holloway defend his title?”
“He forget two years, if you don’t fight, UFC going to take your belt,” he continued. “And the UFC lightweight division had to move. Dana forget this? Hey, UFC has finally lightweight champion. Now we talk about Conor belt – he loses it. He lose his belt. He lose his mind, not only belt.”
The undefeated Dagestani fighter also feels that the UFC does want McGregor to end up with the win in their upcoming encounter at UFC 229.
“Of course they want (him to) win,” he said. “I feel like, with me, UFC happy, too, because I have big name, too. But right now, I don’t talk about all people in the UFC. Some people want (him) to win. Of course. Because he have big name.
“They can make a lot of money with him. Why they need someone come to mount him and smash his face, crush his hype? They don’t need this.”
UFC 229 will take place this Saturday, October 6th, in Las Vegas.
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