I'm not even a big Khabib fan, however he's 23-0, 7-0 in the UFC, has looked dominant in every fight I've ever seen him in (including rag dolling RDA for periods in their fight) and is ranked number one in the Lightweight division. You can't just use the excuse of looking at PPV numbers and how much money a fight makes all the time, at some point you need to remember it's a sport and not just a business. On the part about Khabib beating McGregor, for me it's because he's stylistically an absolute nightmare for McGregor. He's a grinder, he'll wear you down and rag doll you around the cage in a similar way that Cormier does. His biggest strengths are McGregor's biggest weaknesses.
Just to point out too, I'm not saying any of this to slate McGregor. I had no issue with the two fights with Diaz (apart from the Featherweight title being held up for the second fight). I stick by my point, even if it is champion against champion, it won't sell all that much more than McGregor would have done with a different opponent on this card. I get it, he sells big, he's a big draw, but he'll draw whether it's against Alvarez or against an Aldo or somebody else. It's not a case of "we have to do this fight for the huge money" when the reality is they'd be making big money whoever they put him against.
I'm not looking at it from an excited point of view like I did with Diaz/McGregor either. I looked at the rematch for that one and had no issue with it, the first fight was great and I knew they'd go to war for a second fight, that's awesome, it effected nobody around them when you consider Aldo/Edgar had just fought for the interim title at Featherweight anyway. This isn't the same as that. It does have an effect, it's holding back a legit title contender for no reason what so ever. You don't think Khabib is that? Fair enough. I'm not knocking the excitement for the fight either, I'll go into it looking forward to it as always, I just don't agree with the decision to give McGregor a title shot at 155 when they have Khabib and Ferguson who should be getting a title shot.
Would absolutely love to see Ferguson/McGregor though. The build would be some of the best we've seen and the fight would be crazy. In all honesty though if McGregor did beat Alvarez I wouldn't rule out the UFC overlooking Khabib and Ferguson again and making McGregor/Diaz III for the title.