Quote: Khabib Is Popular In Russia Because Of Conor McGregor

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will obviously take on Floyd Mayweather in the biggest combat sports spectacle of all-time when the two polarizing stars meet in a boxing ring in Las Vegas next Saturday, August 26, 2017.

But no matter what happens there, McGregor and his team have teased a return to the octagon before the end of the year, and that return has even rumored to be against decorated but oft-injured No. 1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, and even in “The Egle’s” home of Russia. While that’s unlikely to happen logistically, it’s a huge fight that would arguably burst the seams of a UFC pay-per-view wallet that’s been noticeably thin in 2017.

If it did happen, however, McGregor’s close friend and training partner Artem Lobov, who hails from Russia himself, isn’t convinced of whom would be the more popular fighter in Russia. He recently told MMA Fighting that McGregor has already had a big impact in MMA become mainstream in the fight-centered country:

“When I talk to Russian fighters when I’m over there they are very thankful and complimentary of Conor,” Lobov said. “They see him as one of the main factors behind MMA becoming mainstream in Russia. The pay for most fighters has increased as the popularity of MMA has increased. They are definitely feeling the McGregor effect in the East.”

As for the potential fight between the two, Lobov isn’t certain Khabib would actually be the bigger draw in his homeland. In fact, he thinks Khabib has found the popularity he has in Russia because of McGregor

“It would be very hard to say who would be the bigger draw in Russia between Khabib and Conor. I honestly feel that Khabib is as big as he is in Russia because of Conor McGregor,” Lobov said.

“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. The more they watched, the more they understood it. Then, all of a sudden you get this Russian guy coming along and of course the Russian people put their support behind him.”

Lobov elaborated on the strong stance, noting that the notoriously tough Russia people have noticed the constant pullouts and issues that have limited Khabib to only three fights in the last four years:

“A lot of people in Russian aren’t happy with how Khabib has been behaving with all of his pullouts,” Lobov said, “This isn’t a very manly thing to do, not showing up for a fight. In Russia, the people have been brought up tough. It used to be the Soviet Union. The thing everybody thinks of when they think about Russia is how tough the people are.

“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.”

So if the fight ever did happen in Russia, Lobov believes there would be overwhelming support for McGregor, perhaps even more than for Khabib when taking all the Irish fans that would travel to the event:

“There would be a lot of support for Conor. If you factor in the Irish that would travel over, there might be even more people supporting Conor at the event even though it would be taking place in Russia.”