The problem with that is that people forget.
Yeah, it'd look bad for them to punish Khabib for something so stupid, but people would forget about it. Did Nicco Montano truly deserve to get stripped of her title? At the end of the day, probably not. But she did and the UFC quickly moved onto giving it Val, who had only one win at Fly against a can, and Joanna, who had only won 1 in her last 3 and hadn't even fought at Fly. Montano of course, didn't have the name Khabib had, but its still an example of the UFC not caring and moving on to get the champs that can make them the most money into the title fights.
Though they weren't the actual champs, Ferg and Colby shouldn't have been stripped of their interim belts either, but they were, and it made the UFC look bad, but everyone forgot about that pretty quick once the next fight was made.
Khabib certainly has power, but I don't think his power stretches as far as people like to believe. It only stretches as far as him making the UFC the most money. If they can make more way more money with another angle, they'll go for that instead.
I don't really see the issue in Conor being a piece of shit and Khabib being a good guy, which is what they both are in my opinion. The UFC will gladly work with that narrative. Conor being the scumbag he is just works in his and their favor. Don't forget that the UFC used his dolly incident as fucking promo material after all. When the first rape news on Conor broke, Khabib took a shot at Conor over it. Dana scrambled to meet them both and told them both to keep quiet about it all lol. Khabib wasn't in the wrong during all that. It was purely for Conor's sake as Dana knows where the money lies.
it sucks, but bad guys sell better than good guys. Just look at Mayweather. Dude was beating chicks and went to jail and it didn't stop him at all. I don't know if Conor really did rape those chicks or not, but most likely he'll settle it in private and it'll get forgotten rather quick.
