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#2: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor – UFC 229 – 10/06/18
The UFC are currently pushing this as the biggest fight in UFC history, and it’s hard to argue with that assessment. McGregor is clearly established now as the biggest drawing fighter in MMA history, as he’s drawn over a million pay-per-view buys on four separate occasions now, and Nurmagomedov – at 26-0 – should represent his toughest fight to date.
Add in the backstory and rivalry between the two, including April’s unsavoury incident that saw McGregor attack a bus full of UFC fighters to attempt to get to Nurmagomedov, who’d had an altercation with McGregor teammate Artem Lobov – an incident that the UFC now seem happy to capitalise on for the build to the fight – and it doesn’t get any bigger than this.
As far as who will win, it’s a fight chock-full of question marks. Many analysts felt from the moment he emerged as a UFC superstar that McGregor’s Achilles heel could be his wrestling and grappling game, but thus far the only man to have true success in that area against him was Nate Diaz – a totally different grappler than Nurmagomedov. But then McGregor has never faced a takedown artist like Khabib, and he’s also not fought in the UFC for almost two years.
As for Nurmagomedov, his perfect record is impressive but he has shown holes in his game; most notably he looked rather hittable against both Michael Johnson and Al Iaquinta despite comfortably beating both.
And McGregor has shown a penchant in the past for snacking on shorter wrestle-boxers – see Chad Mendes and Eddie Alvarez – for breakfast. So essentially, picking a winner isn’t easy at all.
Sure, it’s a cliche term, but this is a must-see fight for any true MMA fan. The UFC are probably expecting it to set a new pay-per-view buyrate record and I can’t really disagree with that idea. Miss this one at your peril.
