One of Conor McGregor’s most loyal allies admits the former two-division champion self-sabotaged his chances to beat Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Conor McGregor‘s feud with UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov remains as heated as ever almost seven full years since their UFC 229 fight. Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in the UFC 229 headliner after weeks of bad blood boiled between the two sides.
Despite their heated rivalry, Nurmagomedov showed a rare message of support for McGregor as the latter plots his return to the Octagon in 2026. McGregor hasn’t fought since injuring his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
McGregor was largely dominated at UFC 229 in his long-awaited return after an MMA hiatus to box Floyd Mayweather in 2017. Seven years after UFC 229, one of McGregor’s longtime training partners detailed what went wrong ahead of fight night.
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Artem Lobov opens up on what went wrong for Conor McGregor against Khabib Nurmagomedov
In a recent appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, McGregor’s former teammate Artem Lobov hinted that his longtime teammate could lure Nurmagomedov back to the cage.
“I would love to see him come back, because I feel that if he was at 100 percent, we would be able to bring Khabib back as well,” Lobov said of McGregor.
“He would just need one fight, knock the guy out, and then the whole world will be talking to Khabib and getting him to come back.”
Lobov then shared that McGregor didn’t take Nurmagomedov seriously ahead of UFC 229.
“I know that fight bothers Conor because he didn’t train at all for that fight,” Lobov explained. “Twice a week he was training for Khabib. I tried to get him to [Las Vegas] and said ‘We have to do this’, and he told me to f— off, he just didn’t want to do it.
“He was in the wrong mindset, the party mindset. Training twice a week and that’s it. So when I saw the fight, I was like ‘Oh my god, if only you trained four times a week, you probably would’ve beaten him’.
“But imagine him in a full camp and the Conor that fought Eddie Alvarez. Imagine that Conor fighting Khabib. That’s what I want to see.”
Nurmagomedov retired from MMA in 2020 following a win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254. Despite the UFC allegedly interested in booking a rematch between Nurmagomedov and McGregor, Nurmagomedov remained firm in his retirement stance and hasn’t looked back.
McGregor is targeting a return to the Octagon next summer at the UFC’s planned White House event. He was supposed to fight at UFC 303 last year before withdrawing due to injury.
Artem Lobov extended an olive branch to Conor McGregor after nasty public feud
Ahead of McGregor’s planned comeback, Lobov wants to play a role in his return to the cage.
In the interview referenced above, Lobov pleaded with McGregor to return to full-time training at SBG Ireland, despite the two longtime teammates’ battles in the courtroom. Lobov will return to MMA later this year against Nurmagomedov’s understudy, Zubaira Tukhugov, at a PFL event in Dubai.
As of this writing, McGregor hasn’t responded to Lobov’s offers. Last summer, McGregor went on a wild social media tirade against Lobov in since-deleted posts, signaling an irreconcilable feud between the two teammates.
Lobov was one of McGregor’s main sparring partners for some of the Irish star’s biggest fights, and they could potentially reunite as both sides plot successful returns to MMA.