Abdelaziz: Conor McGregor has “agreed to fight Khabib” because he’s “running out of money”

If Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz is to be believed, Conor McGregor is running low on dough.

Speaking to TMZ Sports this week, Abdelaziz claimed that the Irish star is running out of money, which is why he’s “agreed” to fight Nurmagomedov.

“Conor’s running out of money … This is why he agreed to fight Khabib,” Abdelaziz said (transcribed by Nathan Zur for Sherdog.com). “It’s OK … We’re gonna contribute to him making some money, but at the end of the day we owe him an ass whooping. He needs to get his ass whooped from Khabib.”

While this is certainly an interesting claim from Abdelaziz, its worth reminding that McGregor pocketed upwards of $100 million for his August 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. That amount ignores his many endorsement deals and the cash he racked up in his last few, multi-million dollar UFC bouts.

Besides, that’s not even the most important detail we can pull from Abdelaziz’s comments. The key takeaway here is that Abdelaziz says McGregor “agreed to fight Khabib.” That would seem to confirm that all of the recent talk about a potential Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor fight is grounded in truth.

Over the last few weeks, a number of notables have spoken up, suggesting that the fight is likely to happen soon, from McGregor’s coaches Owen Roddy and John Kavanagh, to Khabib Nurmagomedov himself.

Conor McGregor has not fought since his headline-dominating boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, which he lost by 10th-round TKO. His most recent MMA bout occured in November of 2016, when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC lightweight title

Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, recently captured the UFC lightweight title with a decision defeat of last-minute replacement Al Iaquinta. The title was quietly stripped from McGregor simultaneously.

Do you think Conor McGregor could really be running out of money? More importantly, do you think he’ll end his long-awaited hiatus to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/27/2018.