It’s no secret Conor McGregor wants to rematch his archrival Khabib Nurmagomedov.

However, it’s far from the only blockbuster bout available for the UFC’s biggest star when he chooses to return. McGregor has appeared nonchalant towards his Nate Diaz trilogy fight as well. Speaking to Ariel Helwani in an exclusive interview with ESPN yesterday, McGregor believes ‘The Eagle’ wasn’t as dominant as everyone claims when they first met last October. In fact, he even told Helwani that Nurmagomedov ‘ran away’ the first round:

“He ran away for that first round. He didn’t throw a punch, he shot for the legs before he threw a punch,” McGregor said. “The first round, I should have been talking to Herb [Dean]. He says he was talking to me in the cage. There wasn’t a whisper out of him until he ended up in the dominant position and the only reason he ended up in that dominant position was because I walked around with disrespect towards him cause he was just running around the cage.”

Nurmagomedov was then able to drop McGregor with a beautiful right hand to the shock of many onlookers. McGregor gave the champ credit for a good strike, yet still deemed it a ‘lucky’ shot. He pointed out that he rose quickly and Nurmagomedov went right back to his wrestling:

“I switched up and in that millisecond he got that lucky shot. Even after he got that lucky shot, although it was a beautiful shot, even after the shot I got back up and engaged and he shot again. But whatever, there’s many great things that I can take from that and I can come back and avenge that.”

It’s not a surprise that MMA’s most dominant wrestler would want to stick to his ground game rather than fight in McGregor’s main area of strength on the feet. But no matter what happened in the Octagon, ‘The Notorious’ claimed he was dealing with injuries in addition to not being focused enough himself. Ultimately, he knows he has to prove his doubters wrong once again and is eager to do so:

“I was too committed in the gym and not committed enough outside of it,” McGregor said. “The training sessions were too serious and then when I left the gym, it was gone from my mind. I would go off into the jungle and you cannot do that. You cannot be half in, especially in a game like this and I paid the price for it and that’s it.

“Although I had reasons and I had injuries, who gives a shit. Who gives a shit. What happened, happened. I know what I can do. I’ve done it before. I’ve done it before when I was doubted so I’m eager to do it again.”

McGregor’s UFC return remains unknown. He speculated he would return before the end of the year in his interview with Helwani.