Something that many fight fans are looking forward to this year is the rematch between Connor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, which takes place next week. Above all else the reality is that we are just happy to have McGregor back in the octagon once again, because the truth is that the UFC just isn’t the same without him fighting. Now there will be a number of options for Connor should he win the fight, but the fight that he really wants is unlikely to be one of them. I was chatting to my friend and fight expert Ali Ata about this last week, and I although we don’t always agree, on this one we certainly do. Here then is why we believe that McGregor won’t get the rematch with Khabib that he so desperately wants.
Motivation
The motivation for McGregor is clear, he wants the belt back and he wants the revenge after losing the first fight. The problem that the Irishman has is that Khabib is not motivated by money, and that is the only real thing that he could offer. For what other reason would he fight Connor? The truth of the matter is that here is nothing that McGregor could dangle in front of the Russian that would make him want to fight him.
Not Many More
Whilst Khabib has certainly retried it is important to recognize that he probably will be back, but only if it is a very special fight. Now this will not give McGregor the chance to fight his way up the rankings to get to the number one contender, and so it is unlikely that he can get the fight that way. Khabib will maybe fight 1 or 2 more times, and they will not be against Connor.
He Lost
A point that very few people are missing is that Khabib absolutely schooled Connor in that match, and that was a McGregor at his absolute best condition, or so he said at the time. The question is what could the Irishman possibly do differently that would change the result? Connor has an outstanding stand up game and that left hand and his kicks are absolutely explosive, the issue is that Khabib is not far from Connor standing up, and immensely superior on the ground. As soon as the fight went to the floor, the same thing would happen, and that would be pure dominance from the Russian.
Behavior
Connor tried to ruffle Khabib’s feathers in the build up to the last fight, but the same feeling wasn’t reciprocated. Ultimately what we saw was pretty insulting from Connor’s end and for a man like Khabib who clearly has a high code of morals, this was not something that becoming of an opponent. Again for this reason there is no motivation for Khabib to have anything to do with Connor again.
This is why the fight that McGregor so desperately craves, will not be coming his way.
