If Khabib Nurmagomedov makes weight for UFC 219, then bigger opportunities await

All Khabib Nurmagomedov has to do is weigh 156 pounds or less on the UFC’s Friday morning scale, and a tsunami of opportunities await.

A lightweight belt, headlining a global event in Russia and a showdown against Conor McGregor are all within reach, but the unbeaten Nurmagomedov first has to accomplish what he couldn’t in March: get on that scale and make weight.

“Everything is good,” Nurmagomedov said of his weight Thursday, about 22 hours from the official weigh-in. He said he weighed 160, although his manager said he saw 163.4 pounds on the Thursday morning scale.

Both men agreed Nurmagomedov, 29, will make it to 156 after the March episode, when he fell ill the night before his weigh-in and required hospitalization, scrapping his fight with current interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson.

Nurmagomedov (24-0), the UFC’s No. 2-rated lightweight, hasn’t fought since November 2016, a dominant stoppage of Michael Johnson that became so one-sided that Nurmagomedov had time during the action to personally lobby UFC President Dana White for better opposition. But after missing weight in March, Nurmagomedov underwent back surgery and didn’t resume training until September.

“The thing you’ve got to know is that guys who get hurt all the time are the ones who train hard, hard, hard,” said former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, the San Diegan who was once ranked as the UFC’s No. 1-rated pound-for-pound fighter. “That’s why he’s always injured, but that’s also why when he goes in there he wears people down like a sorry eraser that you use too much.”

Nurmagomedov is a skilled wrestler who’s 8-0 in the UFC, including a victory over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.

In his layoff, he has sought to increase his talent by focusing on striking before Saturday’s UFC co-main event against No. 4-rated Edson Barboza of Brazil. Nurmagomedov said when it became clear he wasn’t going to fight for a belt in this return bout, he urged the UFC to place him against an athlete like Barboza.

“I don’t want to take [an] easy fight,” Nurmagomedov said. “People talk about, ‘Khabib is going to kill this guy,’ and have no interest in it. When I have an opponent I want people to talk about, ‘Maybe this guy can give him a hard time … .’

“All the time I improve myself. People think I am only a grappling guy, but … I train really hard. I’m a completely different fighter than one year ago against Michael Johnson. I can stand with Edson Barboza. He’ll be a little faster than me in the first round, but what happens when I make him tired? He has to fight with me. You have to punch hard for knockouts and to beat me, you have to knock me out. I’m going to keep going.”

He’s expecting the birth of his second child, a son, next month, and says he’ll be ready to fight Ferguson in April, which would leave him poised for a late-summer date with McGregor. Nurmagomedov will be out of action in May and June as he observes Ramadan.

“I don’t want to talk about this guy,” Nurmagomedov said of McGregor after long insisting the charismatic Irishman who made $100 million for boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr. in August doesn’t want to fight him. “UFC wants him to stay champ because he looks nice, he is exciting … Conor is [in] a different situation. He is very big stuff, the UFC wants to put him everywhere: ‘We have Conor McGregor, UFC Champ,’ [and] he doesn’t want somebody to smash his face. This is what I think. But he has to defend his title or Tony Ferguson has to become champion. My opinion.”

A fight that seems more realistic to Nurmagomedov is a homecoming bout in Russia, where he ranks as one of the most popular active athletes in the country, boasting more than three million Instagram followers.

While there have been overtures to explore a UFC fight in Russia, nothing concrete has emerged. A Nurmagomedov victory Saturday intensifies the effort.

“We’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops and it’s very political,” Nurmagomedov manager Ali Abdelaziz said. “To go to Russia, you have to deal with people in Russia and I don’t think the UFC understands that. Khabib understands it very well and he told them: This is one place they can’t do it on their own.”

What matters most, for now, is igniting the process.

“This is my time and my time is coming,” Nurmagomedov said.

Main Event: Cris “Cyborg” Justino (18-1), Costa Mesa, vs. Holly Holm (11-3), Albuquerque, for Justino’s women’s featherweight belt

When: Saturday, 7 p.m. Pacific

Where: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas

Television: Pay-per-view, $59.99; Preliminaries at 5 p.m. on FS1

Undercard: No. 2 Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0) vs. No. 4 Edson Barboza (19-4), lightweights; No. 8 Carlos Condit (30-10) vs. No. 12 Neil Magny (19-7), welterweights; No. 6 Cynthia Calvillo (6-0) vs. No. 9 Carla Esparza (13-4), women’s strawweights; Dan Hooker (15-7) vs. Marc Diakiese (12-1), lightweights

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire