Michael Bisping: “I think Nurmagomedov would go the distance with Mayweather”
Khabib Nurmagomedov is the main attraction in the world of MMA as of right now due to his dominate performance against Conor McGregor at UFC 229.
In light of his newly increased popularity, he recently went out into the pro boxing world and challenged legendary undefeated world champion Floyd Mayweather for a future superfight.
Despite this, many still believe the chances of this fight actually taking place are zero to none, but then again that is what we all said about the McGregor-Mayweather fight and we know how that turned out.
Regardless, the verbal teasing from both Nurmagomedov and Mayweather on social media has generated buzz and a hot topic for discussion among those in the MMA community of what would actually happen should the UFC lightweight champion step inside the boxing ring?
One person willing to share his views and provide a answer on this interesting fantasy fight, was none other than former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping via his podcast Believe You Me.
Though Bisping does not see Nurmagomedov actually defeating Mayweather completely, he does however believe the Russian would amount to something McGregor could not when he fought Mayweather.
“I SWEAR TO GOD, KHABIB WOULD GO THE DISTANCE WITH MAYWEATHER. HE’D GO THE DISTANCE WITH MAYWEATHER. I’M NOT SAYING KHABIB IS A BETTER BOXER THAN MCGREGOR, HE’S NOT A BETTER STRIKER, HE’S NOT AS ELUSIVE, HE’S NOT AS SLICK BUT HE’S GOT A F*CKING CHIN AND HE’S GOT CARDIO FOR DAYS. AND MAYWEATHER AT HIS AGE, HE WAS NEVER A KNOCKOUT GUY EVEN THOUGH HE DID HAVE SOME KNOCKOUTS. HE KNOCKED OUT ENGLAND’S VERY OWN RICKY HATTON IN DEVASTATING FASHION BUT I DON’T SEE IT.
HE COULDN’T PUT MCGREGOR DOWN AND THAT’S WHAT KHABIB’S SAYING. YOU COULDN’T PUT MCGREGOR DOWN, I PUT MCGREGOR DOWN, BUT [MAYWEATHER] PUT MCGREGOR DOWN THROUGH FATIGUE AND THAT WAS HIS GAME PLAN. MCGREGOR WAS VERY, VERY TIRED AND HE STARTED EATING SHOTS AND IN THE END, HE COULDN’T EVEN FIGHT BACK BECAUSE HE WAS SO EXHAUSTED AND KIND OF BEAT UP SO THE REFEREE STEPPED IN. THAT WOULDN’T HAPPEN AGAINST KHABIB AND MAYWEATHER WOULD PROBABLY EMBARRASS HIM AND LIGHT HIM UP AND PICK HIM APART ALL NIGHT LONG BUT KHABIB WOULD PROBABLY GO 12 ROUNDS. CONOR WASN’T FAR AWAY FROM GOING 12 ROUNDS.”
When you think about the reason for this bout to occur, there is not a really compelling storyline on the surface, yet still do not dismiss the possibility of it happening. As Bisping stated, at the end of the day there is still plenty of money to be made with this fight, especially if it keeps ruling the headlines like it already did this past week.
“Mayweather isn’t bothered. . . Khabib, on the flip side, is like, ‘I kind of fancy that,’ because he’s a fighter, he’s a tough motherf**ker,” concluded Bisping. “And he’s not particularly motivated by the money but everybody’s motivated a little bit by potentially $40-$50 million. It wouldn’t be a McGregor type payday, it wouldn’t do those type of numbers, but it’s still gonna be a big payday.
“As of right now, both guys have said they want to do it. That’s the biggest thing.”
