Conor McGregor on receiving end of fresh taunt from Khabib’s manager over Gaethje snub
Justin Gaethje has been campaigning for a fight with the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion for several months.
Conor McGregor lacks the ‘cojones’ to fight Justin Gaethje in his return to the Octagon, according to Khabib Nurmagomedov's manager Ali Abdelaziz.
Former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion Gaethje has been looking to fight ‘The Notorious’ for several months.
Gaethje has made multiple call-outs of the Irishman, evening sliding into his Instagram direct messages in order to land the biggest money fight in the UFC.
Unlike everyone else who has recently called him out on social media, McGregor has yet to respond to Gaethje’s verbal jabs.
And Abdelaziz, fan favourite Nurmagomedov’s manager, has a theory for the Irishman’s silence on a potential showdown with ‘The Highlight’.
“You can’t wrestle for (expletive),” Abdelaziz told MMA Junkie. “You don’t have heart. You don’t have charisma.
“Don’t get it twisted. (If) I don’t hate you, it doesn’t mean I don’t respect you, 100 percent.
“He answers to everybody. He answered to Frankie. He answered to Poirier. He answered to everybody out there.
The UFC is trying to figure out how they can cash out of him because he’s still one of the biggest stars in the sport
“The one guy he didn’t answer to is Justin Gaethje. We know what Justin Gaethje does to people.
“Justin gives you his soul or he takes your soul. But guess what? Khabib [Nurmagomedov] already took his soul.”
McGregor, 31, hasn’t fought since his failed attempt to end Nurmagomedov’s reign atop of the lightweight division last October at UFC 229.
Abdelaziz believes the Dubliner’s hiatus is in part down to the UFC brass trying to secure him a favourable match-up, saying: “Guys, Conor McGregor is done.
“The UFC is trying to figure out how they can cash out of him because he’s still one of the biggest stars in the sport.
“We can’t deny him. But the man has no soul, he has no heart and he’s got no cojones.
“I believe this is something he and his whole team have, (excluding) a couple guys. It’s the culture.
“The culture here? Everybody’s gangsters. The culture there? Everybody give up. That’s it.”
In the last few weeks, McGregor has dropped multiple hints his return to the Octagon is right around the corner.
UFC president Dana White expects the former two-division champion to return early next year and recently revealed the promotion’s poster boy’s next fight is currently in the works.
When recently asked if McGregor’s fight is close to happening, he replied: “Yeah. Well, obviously he’s ready to roll now, too. He wants to go in December. Dublin doesn’t work. We’re doing a show [on] December 14 in Vegas.
"So if he doesn’t want to take that date, then he can come [back] in the begging of next year.”