After his dominating submission win over Michael Johnson at UFC 205 earlier this month, ‘The Eagle’ Khabib Nurmagomedov has made quite the case for earning the next shot at new UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
Nurmagomedov’s dominating wrestling ability and overwhelming ground and pound has been the downfall of all who have stepped into the Octagon with him, and recently retired mixed martial arts (MMA) legend Dan Henderson thinks the case would be the same for ‘The Notorious One’:
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“I think that kid that fought last weekend, I have trouble with his name, Magomedov, the Russian kid, that’s at 155 — I think he would definitely give Conor a huge problem, I think he definitely would take him down and beat the piss out of him.”
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‘The Eagle’ has been campaigning hard for his first shot at UFC gold, after having held a win over the now former lightweight champ Rafael dos Anjos in 2014. Now with his win over Johnson in dominating fashion it may only be a matter of time before we see the Sambo master competing inside the Octagon for the 155 pound title.
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Henderson further went on to talk about his thoughts about Conor McGregor:
“I don’t dislike him,” Henderson said. “I think it took me a while to kinda get onboard with him, just to see a little bit more well-roundedness.
He’s always shown that he’s got good hands, good kicks, but to see him against a couple different wrestlers that had good hands, it took me awhile to get onboard with him. I think Eddie just did not fight a smart fight whatsoever. He didn’t use his wrestling whatsoever”
McGregor and Nurmagomedov definitely have had some issues of their own in the past, as the two were involved in a skirmish prior to the unofficial UFC 205 weigh ins backstage. Here’s a video of it:
Nurmagomedov’s style would certainly pose a threat to the dual weight Irish champ, however, McGregor’s extremely accurate and powerful style of striking could also spell trouble for the Russian as he has shown that he can be rocked, in his bout with Johnson.
If these two brash lightweights should find themselves staring across one another inside the Octagon, it would certainly be one of the toughest fights of each of their careers.
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