After a dominating win over company superstar Conor McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov not only defended his title, “The Eagle” also raised his stock value, opening up a lot of lucrative options for his next fight.
With that in mind, his manager Ali Abdelaziz is looking to cash in on the opportunities.
“Ben Askren, Woodley, none of these guys can touch Khabib. Especially if they’re scared to get tired and these guys, they get tired,” Abdelaziz told TMZ Sports (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Now, I’m not even worried about Tyron or Ben Askren, I’m worrying about somebody bringing $50M to $100M to the table and none of these guys can bring $200,000 to the table.”
After UFC 229, Abdelaziz also believes Khabib had already eclipsed “The Notorious” in terms of star power.
“Listen, the guy we just fought said he made $50M,” Abdelaziz said. “I think, as a global superstar, Khabib bypass him. You have a guy meeting with Putin and Erdoğan and the other guy selling liquor on the corner store. It’s not even in the f—ng same planet.
“Good for him. Whatever. It’s none of our business, he do what he does. We try to go to Africa, we try to do different things. It’s not even close.”
Abdelaziz explained that their plans to go to Africa is more for a noble cause.
“We’re gonna give $1M to get wells and help with schools,” he said. “He’s gonna go to Africa probably end of this year, beginning of next year, and this is the most important thing. Khabib wants to touch lives.”
Khabib earned a disclosed base salary of $2M for UFC 229, which does not include his percentage from pay-per-view sales. It had been withheld by the Nevada Athletic Commission due to the post-fight melee, but half of it was subsequently released a couple of weeks ago.