The Irish MMA icon, 30, spent a year taunting the Brazilian UFC legend, even learning Portuguese to threaten him in his native tongue, before laying him with one amazing punch in 2015.
Ahead of Saturday’s grudge match with the 26-0 Russian wrestler, The Notorious has taken the same approach, attacking his tour bus and insulting his home of Dagestan.
And UK MMA pioneer and trash-talk sensai Michael Bisping believes Mystic Mac is using all the abuse to lure the 30-year-old onto his famous left hand.
He told SunSport: “A lot of the time, when you’re having press conferences, and you’re talking a lot of s***, you do it for a reason, you’re trying to get into your opponent’s head.
“You’re trying to get them angry so perhaps your opponent will not fight like he normally does because gets too emotional, which works against him.
“When no one else was doing it I was trying to get into my opponents’ head.
“That’s what Conor does and a lot of people enjoy watching him, rightly or wrongly, it is captivating to watch. He does get into their heads.
“Because of this, Khabib might rush into Conor, like Jose Aldo did who got really emotional and rushed into Conor walking into a beautiful left hand.
“Conor had been teasing and taunting him for a year, and when Aldo finally got in the Octagon he wanted to kill the guy.
"It is little bit over the top, but there’s a reason why he does it.”
Bisping believes Conor’s best chance of regaining his lightweight title from the champion nicknamed The Eagle is another round-one knockout.
McGregor’s 2016 UFC loss to Nate Diaz and boxing defeat against Floyd Mayweather in 2017 both highlighted his stamina problem, while Nurmagomedov is a regular in the championship rounds.
Khabib has vowed to humble the challenger by prolonging the punishment and refusing to submit him even if the chance presents itself.
And Count Bisping agrees the latter rounds will be a nightmare for the Dublin southpaw.
He said: “If Khabib can get out of the first round, he’ll probably win the fight.
“The first round is going to be very dangerous where Conor is going to be at his most explosive and at his fastest, his reaction time will be the quickest.
“The first round for Khabib is going to be really dangerous.
"After that I think the balance starts kicking in.”
Check out Mike Bisping’s podcast https://mmapodcast.com/bisping/
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