{"id":7816,"date":"2018-07-16T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-16T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=7816"},"modified":"2018-09-06T14:26:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T14:26:55","slug":"is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Putin Playing Matchmaker For McGregor vs. Khabib Fight?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/president-vladimir-putin-and-connor-mcgregor.jpg\" alt=\"President Vladimir Putin &amp; Connor McGregor\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7818\" \/>Russia staged a magnificent 2018 FIFA World Cup and was at the centre of the world\u2019s attention for the last 30 days. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/blog\/why-france-are-expected-to-be-crowned-fifa-world-cup-champs\">France took on Croatia in the World Cup final<\/a> on Sunday and went on to become World Champions after a fantastic display of football. There were a number of celebrities, dignitaries and VIP\u2019s from around the world who showed up in person to watch the World Cup Final in the <strong>Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>One of those celebrities in attendance was UFC super-star <strong>Conor McGregor<\/strong>. The Irish MMA fighter surprised a lot fans when he first posted a video of him in Instagram entering Russia with a huge entourage and later a picture of him watching the World Cup final. MMA fans have been calling for McGregor to step back into the Octagon and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/conor-mcgregor-expected-to-fight-khabib-nurmagomedov-at-ufc-229\/\">face Russian MMA superstar Khabib Nurmagomedov in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>McGregor had earlier launched an attack on Khabib and his team in New York when he and his set of Irish fighters caused damage to a bus that the Russian fighter was present in. <\/p>\n<p>McGregor was arrested and is waiting for a verdict to be issued on July 26.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en-gb\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Today I was invited to the World Cup final as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin. <br \/>This man is one of the greatest leaders of our time and I was honored to attend such a landmark\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YvbSpimJ4S\">https:\/\/t.co\/YvbSpimJ4S<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheNotoriousMMA\/status\/1018560216818966533?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">15 July 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<h2>President Putin Is A Massive MMA Fan<\/h2>\n<p>There is no secret to the fact that the Russian president is a huge MMA fan and is close with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fedor_Emelianenko\">Fedor Emelianenko<\/a> and <strong>Khabib Nurmagomedov<\/strong>. It is safe to assume that President Putin is very well aware of that fact that Nurmagomedov wants to fight McGregor and teach him a lesson for his cowardly bus attack.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/sports-betting\/mixed-martial-arts\/ufc\">UFC<\/a> fans will be interested to know that Khabib Nurmagomedov was also present at the World Cup final, although he did not post anything about being invited by Putin or a picture with the President. The two fighters being present at the same venue was picked up by the UFC and their pictures were posted on the UFC official Instagram account.<\/p>\n<p>If Conor McGregor gets convicted later this month, he could end up going to jail and there will most likely be no fight this year. However, if he gets off the hook, it is highly likely a fight between him and Khabib will take place and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PutinRF_Eng\">President Putin<\/a> can take some of the credit for his promotional efforts!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia staged a magnificent 2018 FIFA World Cup and was at the centre of the world\u2019s attention for the last 30 days. France took on Croatia in the World Cup final on Sunday and went on to become World Champions after a fantastic display of football. There were a number of celebrities, dignitaries and VIP\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Is Putin Playing Matchmaker For McGregor vs. Khabib Fight?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"McGregor attended the World Cup 2018 final with President Vladimir Putin who happens to be a huge UFC fan &amp; friends with Khabib.. Could a fight yet happen?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Putin Playing Matchmaker For McGregor vs. Khabib Fight?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"McGregor attended the World Cup 2018 final with President Vladimir Putin who happens to be a huge UFC fan &amp; friends with Khabib.. Could a fight yet happen?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-07-16T13:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-06T14:26:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/president-vladimir-putin-and-connor-mcgregor.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Landon Wheeler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Landon Wheeler\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"headline\":\"Is Putin Playing Matchmaker For McGregor vs. Khabib Fight?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-16T13:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-06T14:26:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":430,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/07\\\/president-vladimir-putin-and-connor-mcgregor.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is Putin Playing Matchmaker For McGregor vs. Khabib Fight?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/is-russian-president-vladimir-putin-playing-matchmaker-for-conor-mcgregor-vs-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/07\\\/president-vladimir-putin-and-connor-mcgregor.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-07-16T13:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-06T14:26:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.legitgambling.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7735831f7fb7440b065c8376a41cf88d\"},\"description\":\"McGregor attended the World Cup 2018 final with President Vladimir Putin who happens to be a huge UFC fan & friends with Khabib.. 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