Khabib Nurmagomedov is only popular in Russia because of Conor McGregor

Top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov pulls out of so many fights (like this one), even his own countrymen are pissed at him.

That’s according to UFC featherweight slugger Artem Lobov, who believes the far-reaching influence of “Notorious” is enough to overshadow any fighter in any country, nationalism be damned.

From his conversation with MMA Fighting:

“I honestly feel that Khabib is as big as he is in Russia because of Conor McGregor, As I said, Conor is the guy who has made MMA a hot topic in Russia. More and more Russians started watching the UFC when Conor came along. A lot of people in Russian aren’t happy with how Khabib has been behaving with all of his pullouts. This isn’t a very manly thing to do, not showing up for a fight. When they see a fighter continuously pulling out, that’s something that they really don’t like. Then they look at a guy like Conor who always shows up and does what he says he’s going to do. That really resonates with the Russian public.”

Maybe that explains this call out.

Nurmagomedov has been trying to fight McGregor for the better part of a year, but “The Eagle” continues to struggle with injuries and health issues, some of which were severe enough to initiate dialogue on this topic.

As for “Notorious,” he’s already moved on to bigger and better things, like a boxing super fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. this weekend in Las Vegas, something “The Russian Hammer” wouldn’t mind replicating against this guy.