UFC fighter calls Nurmagomedov out for ring girl comments, tells him to ‘pick on somebody your own size’ in latest dig at ex-champ

A UFC lightweight contender has told Khabib Nurmagomedov to "pick on somebody your own size" after the division's former champ called the promotion's ring girls MMA's most "useless" people.

Unbeaten UFC retiree Nurmagomedov has strongly held forth on a number of subjects recently, such as the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan.

After backtracking on his comments regarding that delicate topic, Nurmagomedov gave his opinion on the UFC's ring girls, calling them "the most useless people in martial arts".

Nurmagomedov also told an anecdote about an event when he felt "uncomfortable" with the presence of the ring girls while attending a show with his late father, Abdulmanap – and Kevin Lee, who has claimed Nurmagomedov has a padded record while suggesting he would beat him, has caught wind of Khabib's remarks.

"Let me step up for them, let me stand up for them," Lee told Sportskeeda. "Come on. Leave the ring girls alone.

"They were here way before him. They been at way more fights than him.  So why you going after the ring girls? Pick on somebody your own size.

"I guess a man don't fight no more and feel like he needs to fight everybody. Leave the ring girls alone, we need them. We need that spirit in us."

Nurmagomedov made his observations at a recent media event to promote his Eagle Fighting Championship fight league."Look, I don’t want to offend anyone. Ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts," he said.

"What is their function? You can show that it is the second round on the screen.

"Do they develop a sport? Or [do] they help people to see that it is the second round now? What are they doing? Tell me, please.

"I realize that is a history. History knows many mistakes. We read a history to avoid mistakes of the past in the future. If we look in the history, it says they are useless. That is my personal opinion."

Lee had previously accused Khabib's "smart" manager Ali Abdelaziz of keeping him "on the right path" and away from dangerous opponents.

While calling Khabib a "great champion" to SBN, Lee poked fun at him for flirting with a career switch to football and claimed that people "are seeing now that he didn't really have the challenges that he should have had to really be an all-time great".

"He never really fought a great wrestler and that was something that I was seeing the whole time, coming up," said Lee, who has lost six times in his professional career and said Nurmagomedov had dodged him.

"People are sitting back and really looking at the whole career. They're really seeing it for what it is and not just all this hype and Russian bots that get behind him."