Khabib's retirement now official: McGregor gets one last jab in.

When Khabib Nurmagomedov announced his retirement following his 29th straight victory, I had my doubts. I am always a bit suspicious of anyone's retirement since so many of them in the past have used this as a bargaining chip to get more money out of an organization than they are currently being paid. In the case of an undefeated lightweight champion that many consider to be the greatest pound-for-pound fighter the world has ever seen, I was very suspicious because his payday was not reflecting his rank - which unfortunately is a big part of the UFC.

McGregor on the other hand, will likely continue to cash the biggest checks that the sport has to offer thanks mostly (at least lately) to the mouth that this man has one him.

src
_{Side note: Love that police officer standing there ominously... Like, WTF are you going to do if these 2 kick off? Unless he shot them he is only gonna get hurt}

For me, it is easy to understand why Conor gets paid a lot more than everyone else: He is a living, walking, talking, hype machine. His self-promotion is unparalleled and all of his fights, even the ones that aren't for prestige like when he faced Cowboy Cerrone last January, pull in more pay-per-views than most of the major events where multiple belts are on the line.

Khabib on the other hand, and no offense to the man, is not so great at self promotion. However, this is something that plagues any of the non-native-English speaking members of the UFC. Sure, they are able to get their home countries all worked up, but they can't really create much in the way of hype when no one really understands what they are saying. Khabib is mild-mannered and I have always appreciated that, but being a nice guy doesn't exactly sell tickets or PPV's, unfortunately. He also, in my opinion is significantly less exciting to watch in the ring.

src

Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking the guy. Obviously you don't get to 29-0 and the top of your division by not being effective, but guys who primarily grapple bore me even if they are the best at it. I realize this is a huge aspect of the sport, but winding down the clock is a major part of American football and I hate that too.

This is another reason why McGregor is a much bigger draw than anyone else: Love him or hate him, he always puts on a show, even when he loses.

So you could say that I am happy the McGregor is around, even though his comments kind of irritate me since we are starting to see diminishing returns on his once dominant octagon presence. Since going over to boxing for the payday that probably eclipsed all the money he has ever made in UFC all in one night, he hasn't been the same in UFC.

I am happy Conor is here, but his mouth irritates me and he could have kept it cool and just given a shout out to Khabib to congratulate him on his retirement and bid him godspeed but nah, that wouldn't be very McGregor-ish now would it?

"Never forget who came in the game and made ye." ooh, that is arrogance at its finest is it not? But I suppose we should expect this from "The Notorious One." I'll also say that Khabib looks very different in that picture than he does now.

What was Conor's motivation in writing this? Almost certainly self-serving. At the moment Conor is kind of a non-issue as far as the belt in the lightweight division is concerned unless he can get back into the form he was in pre-boxing Mayweather. After a convincing loss to Poirier by TKO. Now the vacant belt competition is going to NOT be offered to Poirer, which I find a bit surprising and a bit not surprising.

_{Why TF is the belt getting tossed to either the number 3 or 4 ranked guys in the division?}

As much as us MMA fans want to believe that these divisions are about finding the best and getting them to the belt, UFC is a business that is primarily interested in making money and about MMA as a distant second.

Therefore, Michael Chandler, who only has 1 fight in the UFC (albeit an impressive one) will face Charles Oliveira for the belt and while it isn't official, it looks like UFC will want to make the Poirer / McGregor thing a trilogy.

I think Conor could have done a lot different in the way of a sendoff for Khabib without being a dick,but I suppose that we should expect this from him.

Would you like to see Conor return to dominant form or are you happy with his fading away? Personally, I would like to see him have another run at the belt, and I am sure all the top brass at UFC feel the same way but for completely financial reasons.