Khabib Nurmagomedov rejected a question about Conor McGregor from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith ahead of UFC 254.<\/p>\n
Nurmagomedov is gearing up for one of the biggest fights of his career so far on Saturday night as he prepares to defend the UFC Lightweight Championship against Justin Gaethje. However, many fans and pundits can’t seem to stop talking about the Russian’s UFC 229 opponent Conor McGregor.<\/p>\n
After Smith initially brought up McGregor during his interview with the champion, the follow-up question wasn’t particularly well received.<\/p>\n
\n“Right now, I don’t even want to talk about this s—.”@TeamKhabib<\/a> is focused on fighting Justin Gaethje at #UFC254<\/a> and nobody else 😶 (via @FirstTake<\/a>) pic.twitter.com\/XGzJFUanl3<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 20, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The question from Smith was as follows.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times, particularly in the fight game, you talk about giving the people what they want to see,\u201d Smith said (via MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cOne of the things I said last week talking about you, sir, was that you really, really don\u2019t want to fight somebody like Conor McGregor again \u2013 primarily because you don\u2019t like him and you think fighting him again gives him attention that you don\u2019t believe he deserves. How accurate is that?\u201d<\/p>\n
The response from Nurmagomedov was, as you may expect, short and sweet.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, even I don\u2019t want to talk about this (expletive).\u201d<\/p>\n
Javier Mendez, the head coach behind Nurmagomedov, on the other hand, is happy to answer questions about whether or not he feels Gaethje will be the champion’s toughest test yet<\/a>.<\/p>\n