Newly crowned UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and UFC superstar Conor McGregor have entered a heated rivalry. With that in mind, Nurmagomedov’s coach Javier Mendez does not believe the fighter is ready to trade in the stand up with “Notorious.”
Conor McGregor recently made headlines for paying a visit to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Bringing a large entourage with him, the fighter allegedly attacked a bus in which Khabib Nurmagomedov was on. Multiple fighters were injured in the attack, though Nurmagomedov was unscathed.
McGregor is now facing misdemeanor charges of assault and a felony charge of criminal mischief for the incident. The fracas was allegedly a retaliation on McGregor’s part for a previous confrontation between SBG Ireland’s Artem Lobov and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Speaking on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, American Kickboxing Academy’s Javier Mendez revealed that he is not confident that Nurmagomedov could stand with Conor McGregor. However, the coach believes a different game plan would perhaps be more effective.
“Jesus Christ, you think he’s going to fight Nate Diaz? You think we are going to stand with Nate Diaz? You think we have a chance against Nate Diaz? You think, I think that? For God’s sake, no way. Now way in hell are we going to fight with Conor’s stand up too.
“Everybody’s got a different game plan. If you don’t change the game plan according to what’s going on, you are going to get checkmated. This is not all the time about the best fighter. Sometimes it is about the best fighter, yes. But, it is also about the game plan. If you don’t do it right, you can get in trouble.”
