Conor McGregor called Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, a “snitch terrorist rat” at Thursday’s UFC 229 press conference. He also said he was “pulled off a flight” from Cairo to New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and was “caught with five passports in his possession” but “turned informant”. If you want to know the backstory on what that is all about, feel free to jump down that rabbit hole by following @MIKERUSSELLMMA on Twitter. The details and implications of that whole story will blow your damn mind, guaranteed.

The story about Abdelaziz’s rather sketchy past seemed to hit an all time high after the first UFC 229 presser a couple weeks ago when Conor and Abdelaziz exchanged words while Conor was still on the stage. But now The Washington Post and major news sources are starting to take notice here. After keeping quiet on the issue for the past two weeks, Abdelaziz is now speaking out and has responded to Conor in a new interview with ESPN’s Ariel Helwani.

“For me it’s nothing because I’ve been doing this for 10 years. I’ve been called worse,” Abdelaziz said. “People can call me whatever they want, but you know and I know, if anybody say it to my face it’s only one answer for me, I’m gonna slap him. But at the end of the day this is Conor McGregor’s week, this is Khabib’s week. Anybody else it doesn’t matter.”

Abdelaziz then pointed out that all parties involved with the UFC 229 mega-fight between Khabib and McGregor, including himself and Dana White, stand to make a ton of money. But for that to happen, the fight needs to happen and there can’t be any disruptions that might prevent that from happening.

However, once the fight is over, Abdelaziz said that’s another story. “And after the fight anybody have beef, anybody, they want to do something, like Khabib said, 10 on 10, eight on eight, let’s go. Say something. But all this talk doesn’t matter.”

It may seem just like tough talk. But if you consider Abdelaziz’s on past and then you consider all that has already happened between Conor and Khabib, even when the victor’s hand is raised at the end of the UFC 229 main event on Oct. 6, this thing may not be over.

Ali Abdelaziz’s ESPN interview with Ariel Helwani.

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