Leading up to the announcement that Conor McGregor & Eddie Alvarez would be fighting in the main event of UFC 205 for the UFC lightweight championship, it appeared as though Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is ranked at #1 on the UFC’s official rankings, would be getting the fight with Alvarez.

While initial reports indicated that the UFC was attempting to book a lightweight fight between McGregor & Alvarez, UFC President Dana White revealed that it was Nurmagomedov who was offered the fight against Alvarez.

That was followed up by an interesting statement from Brendan Schaub, who revealed that the reason Alvarez was likely going to be fighting Nurmagomedov was because the lightweight champ was demanding too much money for a fight with McGregor.

While Alvarez refuted the claims, ‘The Eagle’ took to social media with signed copies of contract for a fight between he and Alvarez for UFC 205 and UFC 206. The leaked contracts showed signatures from Nurmagomedov, but not Alvarez. Nurmagomedov followed up the announcement by promising the UFC’s lightweight division that McGregor would not be getting a title shot, but would rather have to work his way up from the bottom of the division.

Just days later, it was revealed that McGregor would be getting the fight against Alvarez. The announcement of McGregor vs. Alvarez didn’t sit too well with Nurmagomedov, who took to social media to reveal that he felt like the UFC used him as a bargaining tool in their negotiations between McGregor and Alvarez.

So far there has been no word yet as to when Nurmagomedov will return to the Octagon. After successfully returning to the Octagon after a 2-year layoff earlier this year, Nurmagomedov currently sits as the #1 contender on the UFC’s official rankings with a UFC record of 7-0.