Javier Mendez on Conor McGregor as UFC 249 backup: 'Let's not be naive and think that we're in control'

"We're not in control. We can control what we do but the organization controls who you fight and who you don't fight." 

Khabib Nurmagomedov has reiterated that he’s not interested in a rematch with Conor McGregor, but his head coach thinks it’s not entirely up to him.

UFC lightweight champion Nurmagomedov (28-0 MMA, 12-0 UFC) submitted McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) in 2018 in a dominant performance where the bad blood boiled over in a post-fight brawl.

While it may have meant unfinished business for McGregor, the chapter was apparently closed for Nurmagomedov, who has said he has no interest in running it back. He is currently set to take on Tony Ferguson in the main event of April’s UFC 249 for his next title defense.

And McGregor, who returned in emphatic fashion, taking out Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds at January’s UFC 246, plans on staying ready in case Ferguson pulls out.

While that might not sound like an intriguing option for Nurmagomedov, American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez says, realistically speaking, the UFC calls the shots.

“Let’s not be naive and think that we’re in control,” Mendez told MMA Junkie. “We’re not in control. We can control what we do, but the organization controls who you fight and who you don’t fight.”

The scheduled fight between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson has fallen through several times previously over the past few years, but Mendez chooses not to think negatively. He thinks Ferguson is the matchup that needs to happen for his fighter.

“I think that would have to be a Khabib question because he’s the one that has to make that decision if that was to arrive, and my thought process is to not think that way because I want to think that it’s going to be Tony and they’re going to fight,” Mendez said. “I said this from the first interview I did right after he beat Conor, they asked what’s next, I said Tony. Tony deserves it, Tony needs to be next in line, and that was a while back, and then Tony didn’t get it, Dustin (Poirier) got it.”