Khabib Nurmagomedov offered $5 million to fight in Russia

Top ranked UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov is undoubtably one of the best lightweights in the UFC. In addition, ‘The Eagle’ boasts a cult-like following of fans in the MMA community, who are very eager to see the undefeated Dagestani fighter given a title shot.

With that being said, Nurmagomedov’s star-power is increased tenfold in his native country of Russia, where he was reportedly recently offered $5 million to fight according to his manager Ali Abdel-Aziz.

He spoke on The MMA Hour:

“At the end of the day, Conor is going to get what he wants. But, Khabib is not going to go fight any other guy if there is no belt on the line. He’s not fighting nobody,” said Ali.

“You have to understand, too, Khabib is getting; Khabib is under a UFC contract and I will never break a UFC contract and sign with another promotion. He got offered $5 million from a promotion in Russia to fight. You understand? That’s how much the man can get. We would never do anything like that because we will always honor UFC contract,” concluded Ali.

This reaffirms what Nurmagomedov has said following his UFC 205 win over Michael Johnson earlier this month, but contradicts what Nurmagomedov’s father said earlier this week when he stated during an interview that his son would not wait longer than 3 months to fight, and that if need be, he would take a fight with Tony Ferguson to cement his status as the lightweight #1 contender.

Nurmagomedov on the other hand stated following his UFC 205 win over Michael Johnson earlier this month that if the UFC didn’t give him a title shot for his next fight, he would fight in other promotions.

While that may or may not be possible depending on how many fights ‘The Eagle’ has left on his current UFC contract, one thing is for sure, based on the fact that another promotion offered Nurmagomedov $5 million to fight in Russia, if he were to somehow leave the UFC, he would have no shortage of options.