Ali Abdelaziz, who is the manager of Nurmagomedov, recently stated that a bid of $100 million has been made to host the rematch between Nurmagomedov and McGregor in Saudi Arabia, but Nurmagoemdov doesn’t understand the rationale behind that.
“Why do I need that kind of money?” he said during a recent press conference (via RT Sport). “There are so many organizations. For example, there’s not only football for the blind, there’s sambo and other sports. Let (the UFC) give it to them if they don’t know what to do with the money. But giving me $100 million for me to beat up that idiot again? I don’t think that’s rational.”
Nurmagomedov and McGregor first met back at UFC 229, with Nurmagomedov scoring a fourth round submission win on that night.
The champion must first worry about facing Ferguson at UFC 249 and everything after that isn’t a concern at the moment for him.
“I have a fight on April 18 – a very serious fight,” he said. “For the past month and a half, I’ve been consistently training day and night. I’ve gotten myself in good shape to where I’m supposed to be 70 days before a fight. I feel great. What’ll happen after the fight, no one knows. I don’t worry about it. That’s what (the UFC) want. I’m surprised that people even question me about a rematch. It seems that people want to continue the festivities after that fight. Everyone saw what happened in the octagon (against McGregor). I controlled the fight every step of the way. I did everything I wanted to him. He even gave up. How can we even discuss a rematch? We can only talk about continuing the festivities and making money. The question is, do I want that? I am focused on Tony Ferguson.”
UFC 249 takes place on Saturday, April 18 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
