With Conor McGregor strongly hinting at a UFC comeback soon, current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has made it clear he has no intention of offering him a title rematch any time soon.
On Friday, Nurmagomedov stated that it would take McGregor at least nine or ten wins in a row before he has earned another shot at the title.
"As for a rematch, to fight for a belt in the UFC, I remember I had something like nine or 10 fights. If he wins 10 fights in a row, then that's completely possible,'' Nurmagomedov said.
McGregor, who hasn't fought in the Octagon since he lost the belt to Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018,
told the media that he is planning his comeback tour and intends to fight on January 18, 2020. He didn't name an opponent, but McGregor has been strongly linked to Justin Gaethje and Donald Cerrone. McGregor then said he intends to fight the winner of Diaz-Masvidal (which was Masvidal) before taking on the the UFC lightweight champion.
That would be Khabib Nurmagomedov right now, but he is expected to defend the title against Tony Ferguson first. He told the media that he's in negotiations to fight Ferguson, but he wants the fight in New York rather than Las Vegas.
"They offered me to fight in Vegas in March, but I told them that if Vegas officially apologizes for wrongly fining me for that incident on Oct. 6, 2018, then I'll fight there,'' he said.
"If not, then they can assign me to another date. As far as I know, they're planning in April to hold [a fight card] somewhere in New York, so I'm saying I'm ready for April, or March if Las Vegas apologizes.''
Given McGregor's popularity in the sport, it's highly unlikely that the UFC would want to wait for him to win ten matches before planning a highly anticipated rematch against Nurmagomedov.