Khabib Nurmagomedov expects Conor McGregor's retirement to be short-lived.
Last week McGregor called time on his mixed martial arts career in a surprising social media post, the Irishman contradicting earlier statements that his next bout was close to being signed.
However, while speaking at a Moscow university on Tuesday, Nurmagomedov said he believed the reason behind the post was because McGregor and the UFC could not reach a deal for upcoming fights.
And the Russian fully expects his old adversary to have a change of heart.
"I don't think he's finished,'' Nurmagomedov said, as quoted by ESPN. "Conor acts like a jealous wife, who says 'I will leave' all the time but then comes back."
UFC president Dana White seems to agree with Nurmagomedov, having said that the two need to meet in person to discuss future fights.
"I think that there's some things that Conor wants and I think that Conor wants to get together face to face, he and I, and we probably will in the next couple of weeks and we'll get this thing figured out," White said in an interview with KLAS-TV.
"Listen, who gets respected more than Conor McGregor does? Come on. The guy's never been disrespected, definitely not by me. And he's got a lot of money too.
"But he's stuck on this thing where he wants a piece of the ownership and…if you look at basketball, Michael Jordan didn't own a piece of the league, and the list goes on and on. Is Conor very valuable to the sport and to the brand, the UFC? Of course he is. That's a tough one, but I think there's other ways that we can make him happy."
McGregor retired once before in 2016, only to swiftly change his mind. His most recent fight was against Nurmagomedov, who defeated him in October via submission.
