Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov? Eddie Alvarez Picks His Winner

Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez gave his verdict on who would win in a potential dream fight between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Following the now infamous bus attack by McGregor in the build-up to UFC 223 on April 7, many in the combat world are itching even more for him to face the newly crowned lightweight champion Nurmagomedov.

McGregor hurled a dolly at a bus occupied with UFC fighters including Nurmagomedov, allegedly due to the latter threatening his teammate Artem Lobov, before fleeing the scene and turning himself in to the police.

The chaos from the events that took place, resulting in two fights getting cancelled due to injuries, can be seen in a UFC Embedded episode that currently has over 4.5 million views.

While Alvarez believes it was just to try to build up a potential fight with the Russian native, he says even McGregor did not expect things to escalate that quickly.

"I think Conor went there for a fight to cause up some drama," Alvarez told ESNews. "[But] I think it went further than what he thought it would. He threw the dolly and then he busted the window and hurt people. I think he was ready to build up the biggest fight in UFC history and he went there with that intention but it went too far and even he didn't expect it to go that far."

The Irishman did succeed however in building the fight up even more, with Nurmagomedov recently claiming he wants to finish their "beef" and predicting it would break the pay-per-view record for a UFC event.

But who would win in such a match-up? McGregor is known for his accurate strikes with devastating power while "The Eagle" takes everyone to the ground and mauls them until they give up.

Alvarez believes Nurmagomedov leaves his chin exposed too much which could get him caught with a knockout strike but would still give him the edge over McGregor because of his prowess on the ground.

"Styles make match-ups. I think if Khabib does not correct the mistake of sitting back with his chin back and going to the side, Conor's going to put his lights out with that left hand pretty bad, pretty quickly," Alvarez explained. "So he needs to correct that mistake and he needs to learn to relax in the pocket and know that he's safe. Until he does that, he's always in danger of getting beat by a guy with knockout power like Conor McGregor."

"But Conor McGregor on his back, I don't feel like he has a strong spirit for fighting on the ground. Some guys have a real strong spirit, they can stand up all day for five, ten rounds as long as they're standing up but when it goes to the ground their spirit weakens."

"I don't think Conor has a strong enough spirit to be able to withstand Khabib's ground attack over and over. So I'd have to give the edge to Khabib because I feel like there will be takedowns and Conor will not get up and I don't know if he has the spirit to stay in the fight with a ground fight where Khabib is controlling fifteen to twenty minutes of a twenty-five minute fight. I'd have to give the edge to Khabib," Alvarez added.