Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin, Umar Nurmagomedov, canceled his appearance at UFC 257, Sunday (24/1) because of Conor McGregor.
The UFC scheduled Umar Nurmagomedov against Sergey Morozov in bantamweight in an additional duel at UFC 257 that pitted Conor McGregpr vs Dustin Poirier as the main duel.
However, the Umar vs Morozov battle failed to occur this weekend, due to a change in schedule by advancing to UFC Fight Night 8, Wednesday (20/1).
Quoted from Sportskeeda, the change in schedule for the Umar vs Morozov duel was due to avoiding the possibility of a fuss with Conor McGregor.
In an interview with Sport24, Umar said the UFC decided to change the schedule because it did not want his team to meet McGregor as a riot at UFC 229 in October 2019 after The Notorious lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“Ali Abdelaziz [manager] told me that the fight was postponed. I said that it makes no difference to me. The main thing is fighting,” Umar was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.
“Most likely, this is done so that we do not touch Conor McGregor here, and in the tournament too. They have such a policy. They don’t want us to meet each other. Anything can happen,” added Umar.
The commotion after UFC 229 involved not only Khabib with McGregor’s training partner, Dillon Danis, but also The Eagle team who are still closely related.
Umar himself still remembers the bitter moment when Khabib’s team was attacked by McGregor in the octagon even though the fight was over.
“I don’t even know what will happen if I meet Conor in the lobby. Surely everything will not end well if our team is in the same room,” said Umar.
“A person does not stop talking nonsense, insulting and offending the honor of others. In this case, he needs to change. Any fight can be advanced, but without affecting the honor and dignity of the opponent,” Umar continued.
