UFC lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov says UFC President Dana White lied about him declining to fight in November.
Recently, Nurmagomedov did an interview with sports.ru, a Russian sports website, and discussed White lying about him declining a fight.
“Dana White said that I declined the offer (to fight) in November. He’s lying. Let him show us the correspondence when we discussed this fight,” Nurmagomedov said (translated by Google). In New York, (UFC 217) is planned, there are a lot of our, Russian-speaking, almost two million people from the post-Soviet space.”
Nurmagomedov went on to say that the UFC told him to fight on Oct. 7 at UFC 216, but he had already told the UFC he wanted to fight at UFC 217 in New York City. He said the UFC made the interim lightweight title fight at UFC 216 because no other UFC champions were available to fight at the event.
“By November, I would have been ready. On April 22 I had an operation. I began to train on Aug. 1. August, September, and October are three months. Do you want me after the operation, after the treatment, go to the title fight with two months of preparation? On the most important battle of my life? For 5 rounds?” Nurmagomedov said.
“After the operation, I did not train for six months. I said, ‘We agreed on the November.’ I was told ‘If you do not fight, then we do with Lee for a temporary title.’ I say, ‘Do it, you are the organizers there.’ Well, then there was talk that I had rejected the fight with (Edson) Barboza. There was no such proposal at all. That I did not take the fight in November. This too was not (true).
“I agree that I am an uncomfortable fighter for the organization. My injuries have recently been increased. In the last battle, I did not make weight. I admit this is my mistake. But do not lie that I declined the fight. This is generally wrong, ugly, so it is impossible. Proposals for Barbosa were not (true) at all.”
