Khabib’s Manager Has Big Money Demand For Next Fight
Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager appears to have what’s best for his client in mind when it comes to his next fight. Big money will have to be put on the line.
The speculation about who he’d fight next has gone wild. Could Khabib be fighting Conor McGregor for the second time? How about a fight with former UFC middleweight and welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre? Might he change things up with a boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather?
Khabib’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, has stated in a recent interview they will fight anyone but it needs to be for the biggest money bout possible.
“Ben Askren, Woodley, none of these guys can touch Khabib,” Abdelaziz told TMZ Sports (H/T to MMAFighting). “Especially if they’re scared to get tired and these guys, they get tired.”
Abdelaziz made it known that he’s worried about getting big money from the UFC that is around the range of $50M to $100M.
“Now, I’m not even worried about Tyron or Ben Askren, I’m worrying about somebody bringing $50M to $100M to the table and none of these guys can bring $200,000 to the table.”
The reason for this is due to the payday that they got for UFC 229 that saw Khabib submit McGregor. McGregor made $3M in base pay. He was rumored to have pulled in upwards of $50M once getting a percentage of the PPV sales.
On the flip side, Khabib got a salary of $2M and also received a piece of the PPV money.
“Listen, the guy we just fought said he made $50M,” Abdelaziz said. “I think, as a global superstar, Khabib bypass him. You have a guy meeting with Putin and Erdoğan and the other guy selling liquor on the corner store.”
Khabib’s Focus
For Abdelaziz, he thinks that Khabib’s job is to get as much money as possible due to the time he’s put in. His options are many as a result of his hard work:
“At the end of the day, maybe a whole bunch of money gets on the table, maybe the rematch. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll give a rematch to the guy we just killed. . . Whatever’s gonna bring Khabib money. This is now my job. It’s not Khabib’s job. Khabib created legacy, 11 years, 27 fights. Right now, money talks, bulls**t walks. That’s it.”
According to his manager, the UFC champ is rich and could retire right now if he wanted to do so. Thus, they will wait it out until the right fight is presented.
“Khabib can retire now. He’s rich. . . But if somebody’s gonna put big paycheck on the table and we can get it done, I don’t care about number one contender, number ten contender. Khabib was number one contender for five years! Conor jumped him, Eddie jumped him, a lot of people jumped him. Right now, it’s about the paycheck.”
