‘Conor McGregor Deserves Khabib Rematch,' Insists Former UFC Fighter

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Artem Lobov has insisted that Conor McGregor deserves a rematch against Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Lobov and McGregor are good friends and also teammates at Straight Blast Gym. The Russian-Irish Mixed Martial Artist (MMA) and boxer, Lobov backed McGregor by saying that the Dubliner has mastered the act of returning to the drawing board for seeing a new approach before winning a second fight after suffering a heavy defeat.

McGregor and Khabib last clashed against each other at UFC 229 in 2018 where the leadup to the fight was pretty intense. But, the rivalry got intense after Khabib’s bout win by submission. The Irishman has always said that since he was not focused, he lost the UFC 229 fight. McGregor returned to UFC this December and defeated Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds, showing he was still capable of destroying his opponents.

Lobov has suggested that now that McGregor is focussed again, a rematch against Khabib is the only fight that McGregor deserves at the moment.

“To be honest, I just want to see Conor fight the winner of Tony and Khabib, which makes more sense than Gaethje. There is always going to be someone talking. But, when you are in the position of Conor and has done what he has done, you don’t need to prove anything,” Lobov told BJPENN.com.

“For him, he should just fight the best guy every time. They wanted him to have a fight before and he had one against ‘Cowboy’ and finished that in 40 seconds. That’s it. From now on he needs to fight the best guy only,” he further added.

While many believe if McGregor and Khabib do a rematch, the result will not change, Lobov says the third round proved the Irishman has what it takes to stuff the takedowns.

“I think if you look at when Conor lost to Diaz he made the necessary changed and dominated that fight with three knockdowns. He overcame the issues he had. You have to give the rematch to Conor."

"It won’t be an easy fight but it will be a win for him. Look at round three, Khabib wasn’t able to score any takedowns. Look at how good Conor did, you have never seen any fighter do that. There are clear reasons, now that he’s focused, with another training camp for Khabib that he will win,” Lobov explained.

Currently, all the UFC events are either canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. For a McGregor-Khabib rematch, the latter will have to defeat Tony Ferguson in his next match.