It’s fight week, when the anticipation for big contests reach a boiling point, but also when there is extra trepidation that something, i.e. weight-cutting issues, goes wrong and puts a marquee bout in jeopardy. One half of the UFC 229 main event Khabib Nurmagomedov has particularly been the cause of such trepidation, most notably when he failed to make weight for his UFC 209 interim lightweight title bout against Tony Ferguson last year. Speaking to the Mac Life, Conor McGregor addressed what would happen to the UFC 229 main event should Khabib pull out at the last minute, and MMA fans will be pleased to hear that The Notorious One plans on competing with or without Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“I know there’s Pettis and Ferguson is in the co-main,” McGregor said. “Originally, about a month or two ago in preparation for this, when this fight got announced, the co-main, I was like, ‘Man, if Khabib bottles this fight like he has bottled many fights before, if he bottles this one, I don’t think I give a fuck about those other two. No disrespect to those other two, I don’t think I give a fuck about those other two… I think I would probably have disappeared back in the shadows and got that man somewhere else outside of here. But now that I’m here and I’m close, I think if he didn’t show up, I think I would take a fight against either one of those.”
Hopefully, this will be a non-issue and fans will be treated to the fight that the MMA community has fantasized about for well over a year now, but it should help put minds at ease to know that Conor McGregor will be making his long-awaited Octagon return this Saturday one way or another.
Do you think Conor McGregor should face Tony Ferguson or Anthony Pettis if Khabib doesn’t make it to UFC 229? Or should he wait for Khabib for another date?
