I just noticed that only TWO other fighters took Khabib into deeper waters than McGregor did! Edson Barboza in 2017 at UFC 219, and Al Iaquinta in 2018 at UFC 223:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khabib_Nurmagomedov#Mixed_martial_arts_recordI will have to watch those fights...well...right now

and see which of the two gave Khabib the harder fight. I highly recommend UFC Fight Pass for any fight fans - it's cheap to buy, and they have all the old fights archived, and they left in the brawl at the end of Khabib and McGregor's fight.

So it looks like only two other fighters did better against Khabib than McGregor did - not counting cases where another fighter may have come close to finishing him. An example of this would be Poirier's fight against Khabib, where he almost got him in the guillotine. So even though McGregor lost...he did better than almost anyone else against the undisputed best lightweight fighter [and reigning champion] in the UFC right now. I don't think anyone is questioning that Khabib is the best 155-lb'er.
That Khabib fight was when I realized that Conor still had some fight left in him [despite the loss], and the brawl initiated by Khabib overshadowed McGregor's loss, which was actually good for his brand, LOL. It would have been a lot more devastating to Conor, had Khabib not been such a sore loser, by assaulting McGregor's Jiu-Jitsu coach, Dillon Danis. That behaviour by Khabib is what, IMO, saved that loss from significantly tarnishing McGregor's brand.
The untouchable brand in the UFC almost NEVER works. It just doesn't. GSP didn't lose a fight in a period of time over 10 years [August 25th, 2007 through to November 4th, 2017]. But streaks like that SELDOM happen. And once they do happen, a fighter's star power as an "untouchable" branded athlete diminishes to nothing, basically.
This isn't boxing.
So yes, as
honest said, this fight needs to happen before Conor loses another fight.
Having said that, I still feel there is next to NO CHANCE of Conor beating Khabib in a second fight, lol. So it's funny to me how much money there may be for a fight with a result that is, IMO, wholly predictable.
But, hey - people love rematches, and I'm sure Khabib won't mind smashing Conor for a second time.
