Rustam Khabilov, and Khabib Nurmagomedov are two of the UFC’s biggest rising stars. Both fighters come from Dagestan Russia, and train together frequently.
This led to fans calling for the two men to fight one another in the Octagon, something Khabilov is very against.
He spoke to MMAJunkie Radio:
“No. We’re friends. We’re like brothers. We’re together a lot of time to train. I can’t fight with him.”
Khabilov even went on to reject the idea of fighting Nurmagomedov, even if there was a UFC championship on the line.
He went on to discuss his hopes of the UFC holding a card in Russia:
“This is my dream. I want the UFC to come to Russia because we have a lot of fighters now in the UFC. I can’t wait.
“I think maybe (it will come in 2015), because the UFC is starting to show fights on Russian TV. Everyone now is seeing events in Russia.”
Khabilov fights Adriano Martins tonight at “UFC Fight Night: Bigfoot vs. Mir”