Khabib Nurmagomedov is defending the lightweight title this weekend against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254, but one person who’d like to face him down the line is ONE lightweight champion Christian Lee.
Lee hopes to fight Nurmagomedov one day so the MMA world can see a super fight between the UFC and ONE.
“One person I see across the globe who’s doing extremely well and who I would really love to share a cage with one day is Khabib Nurmagomedov," Lee said at a recent virtual media scrum. "He is undefeated in his professional career. He’s beaten everyone there is to beat. Right now I believe he’s the number one pound-for-pound guy, so it would just be an honor to share the cage with him and to one day make a superfight between ONE and the UFC."
A big hitch to Lee’s plan is that Nurmagomedov may retire if he hits 30-0 as a fighter and he is currently at 28-0. The ONE lightweight champion knows that avoiding the takedown is the key to defeating Nurmagomedov.
“If me and Khabib were to fight, I think the biggest thing is people worry about his game too much," he continued. "They worry about not getting taken down. They don’t worry so much about how they are actually going to win the fight. So I think I would just pick him apart with my striking, stuff his takedowns, and then take him down as well. My game plan would just consist of getting off to the punch before he does. Because once he gets going, and once he starts taking you down, it’s all downhill from there. The key to beating him is hitting him first, and continue hitting him until you get your hand raised."
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