Wilkinson: McGregor doesn’t want “Brown Noser” Amirkhani at SBG

There’s been quite a bit of back and forth between Makwan Amirkhani and Mike Wilkinson ahead of their eagerly anticipated clash at the top of the preliminary card of UFC London, which will be beamed around the world on Fight Pass on February 27.

From Wilkinson claiming that ‘Mr. Finland’ exited Allstars Gym due to a coach or teammate being with his girlfriend, to Amirkhani insisting that he will make the Englishman’s family cry when they clash, ‘The Warrior’ added more quotables to the conundrum this week when he spoke to SevereMMA.com.

According to the Brit, Amirkhani is facing a massive step up in competition having faced two opponents with losing records thus far during his UFC career.

“There are no easy fights in the UFC. It’s the Premier League of fighting. But, when I think about the guys he’s faced, I really don’t think he’s ever come up against someone like me,” said Wilkinson.

“No disrespect, but Andy Ogle is not UFC material. He was 1-5 with UFC and he should’ve got cut long before he fought Makwan. He fought somebody else who’s got a losing record with UFC, so he’s definitely stepping up against me. I’m his step up and he’s going to fall short.”

Wilkinson also believes that Amirkhani’s move to SBG for four weeks in January was an effort to “get a bit of glory off the back of Conor McGregor”.

“Listen, the only reason he went to SBG was to get a bit of glory off the back of Conor McGregor,” he said. “Conor McGregor doesn’t want people like him in his gym. I’ll bet you any amount of money Conor has not followed him back on Twitter or anything like that.

“You don’t want people like that, fighters from your own weight division, showing up to train with you. It doesn’t make sense. Makwan is only doing that because he doesn’t have confidence in his own ability. He should train where he’s from. I’m from Manchester, so I train in Manchester, I can learn everything I need to know there.

“Honestly, when I heard he was going to train in SBG I just laughed. He’s a joke, he’s a fake and he’s a brown-noser. Why would you want to train with the champ, Conor McGregor? Personally, I want to fight Conor McGregor one day, I want what he’s got and I’ll graft until I get there. I’m not going to train with him to see if I’m as good as him before that. He’s scared, and it’s funny.”

Considering the four weeks he spent training in Ireland, Wilkinson believes there is no way Amirkhani could have developed as fighter in such a short period of time.

“He’s been training in a gym for four weeks, you can’t pop over for such a short period of time and expect to develop as a fighter. His game hasn’t developed jack shit. All he’s probably developed is speaking Irish.”

Last month Amirkhani claimed that he will be looking to make his move to SBG Ireland permanent after facing Wilkinson in London.

@PetesyCarroll