Gunnar Nelson Believes McGregor Will Rematch Nurmagomedov, Plans To Help Next Time

Gunnar Nelson believes Conor McGregor will fight Khabib Nurmagomedov again at some point, and he believes he may be an important part of helping his teammate fare better in the rematch.

Nelson, an Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight, is also a grappling wiz and longtime stablemate of McGregor at SBG Ireland. The 30 year-old Icelander spoke to “The Mac Life” ahead of his bout against Alex Oliveira this weekend at UFC 231 and explained why he was forced to sit out of McGregor’s training camp for the first Nurmagomedov fight.

“It was very unfortunate, obviously, that I couldn’t join the camp because of my knee,” Nelson said. “I could have maybe done it right at the end, but he had everything planned out and he had his guys there. But it was a little bit difficult to see, and I think for the next one -- and I believe there will be another one at some point -- I’ll be there for his camp for sure.”

Nelson noted that he’s analyzed the fight and can point out a few things McGregor could do to improve his chances in a potential rematch with Nurmagomedov, but believes McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, has done the same.

“Yeah definitely [I can see some things],” he said. “I’m sure [McGregor] can as well, and John [Kavanagh] obviously, our coach.

“I think there was a bit too much chase in this fight,” he added. “I’m not going to go into detail about how Conor will beat Khabib.

“I’m a different fighter than Conor, so my strategy would probably be a bit different than his,” Nelson said, “but you don’t want to sit in [Nurmagomedov’s] world, and guys tend to do that a little bit. Al Iaquinta actually did pretty well, I thought. He was able to tweak his strategy and did well, but guys seem to get caught in his world, and that’s his world.”