He is known for his shocking (sometimes disgusting) behavior on the eve of a fight, but he is also known as a fighter who endures defeats steadfastly. The Irishman behaved with utmost dignity after losing to Nate Diaz. He admitted that his opponent was better and, in a respectful tone, asked the company for revenge. In it, Conor ultimately won.
UFC 229: Khabib forced Conor to surrender. How it was
After defeating McGregor, Nurmagomedov staged a massive brawl inside and outside the cage. Scandal in Las Vegas.
Having lost to Floyd Jr. in the ring, McGregor also did not consider it necessary to return to mutual insults, recognizing Mayweather’s advantage in skill and experience.
In the case of Khabib, there is still silence. Almost. Conor tweeted that the fight was good and it was time to ask for a rematch.
In addition, McGregor decided not to file a complaint against Khabib's loved ones for attacking the already defeated Notorious in the midst of a mass brawl after UFC 229. Perhaps this means that Conor is only interested in violence in the cage - and no compromises.
The Irishman was not just defeated last weekend - he was smashed, destroyed and taught a lesson. That is why he will definitely want to take revenge, and for the same reason, Khabib, who is pleased with himself, does not necessarily have to agree to a rematch.
What awaits Nurmagomedov after the fight of the century
Khabib is the main fighter on the planet. It's up to him to choose.
Much in this story will depend on the decision of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which will consider the incident with a fight provoked by Khabib’s side, and on the demands of the Russian champion.
But what should Conor do if neither he nor the UFC can persuade Nurmagomedov to the second series of this tiring promotion?
Nate Diaz. Trilogy
An option that will be available to Conor as long as he and Nate are under contract with the UFC. Regardless of the tournament situation in the division, everyone is waiting for the outcome of the confrontation between McGregor and Diaz. Their rematch in 2016 still holds the first place in UFC history in terms of the number of paid broadcasts sold. And Nate, on top of everything else, in theory, by the end of autumn he could take the title in a new weight category - up to 165 pounds (74.8 kg), which will only add prestige to his third fight with Conor.
True, before discussing the culmination of the confrontation between Diaz Jr. and McGregor, it is necessary to wait for Nate’s fight with the most dangerous Dustin Poirier at UFC 230. There is a high probability that after the November tournament, the third fight between Diaz and McGregor will turn into a losers’ derby.
"Khabib ruined everything." Reaction of the foreign press to the scandalous fight
The Western media were no worse off than the participants themselves in the now legendary massacre.
Tony Ferguson. Noble Risk
The UFC may resort to organizing this fight if Khabib is given too much of a disqualification. In this case, the company will probably want to play for a temporary lightweight title (or a full one if Nurmagomedov is also deprived of his status). McGregor's target, as we already understood, is Khabib. And if the UFC decides that Conor will have to earn this fight, then, without a doubt, Tony Ferguson will be offered as Conor’s opponent. And that's just a problem.
I don’t want the Irishman’s many fans to think that the “Championship” doesn’t like McGregor. It’s worth admitting that Conor, even taking into account all the abomination he said, deserves respect for his contribution to the popularization of MMA. But, frankly speaking, his chances of beating Ferguson do not seem high. The more likely outcome of the meeting between Tony and Conor seems to be the second brutal beating of the latter in a row in front of the whole world.
"I need new haters." Khabib rested and began to speak
After the historic victory, Khabib became active on Instagram.
The American despises the Irishman just as vehemently as his previous rival. Ferguson just always fights aggressively. And judging by his performance at UFC 229, only the current champion can stop this machine.
Boxing. Money
McGregor also has options in other sports. It's likely that Conor's stock as a boxer fell somewhat along with him in the second round of his last fight. Who would have expected Khabib to drop Conor in a standing position? Judging by Nurmagomedov’s confident actions on his feet, only the Eagle himself and his kickboxing coach Javier Mendez. Here the Russian and the AKA audience want to give a standing ovation. There are no holes in Khabib’s “strike”, otherwise he would have fought on equal terms with the best MMA puncher.
And yet Conor, if he wants, is able to get himself a good, money fight in the ring. Mayweather probably won't mind earning another wild check without breaking a sweat. Or Paulie Malignaggi will finally achieve a duel with the Irishman who offended him. And Manny Pacquiao, who has challenged McGregor more than once, is still an active boxing star.
Whatever path Conor chooses for his comeback, one thing is clear - his star has not yet faded. Yes, McGregor was smeared in front of the whole world, they left him no chance. But even in a completely lost fight, Conor managed to show a lot. Firstly, before the missed blow, the Irishman actually managed to resist Khabib’s fight. At least in the first round, McGregor demonstrated good work on the ground from below, when he did not allow Nurmagomedov to work in his usual manner.
Secondly, it might seem that even after being extremely close to collapse in the second five minutes, Conor managed to recover and later take the third round from Khabib. This means that his functionality has improved and the desire to move forward is still with him. No one could have expected this from McGregor.
Didn't answer for the market. Khabib strangled Conor
McGregor has never been in so much pain before. And further. It was the most scandalous fight in MMA.
So I just want to wish Conor to endure a difficult defeat, learn a valuable lesson about manners and come back soon - stronger than before. But not in a fight with Nurmagomedov. On his second try, Khabib might just end his career.
Published 07.10.18 16:11Meanwhile, a UFC commentator named the reason for the fight after the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.
After losing the title fight for the UFC lightweight world championship, Irish fighter Conar McGregor announced that he wants to have a rematch against Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov. McGregor himself announced this on his Twitter.
“Not a bad shot. I’m looking forward to a rematch,” the former two-time UFC champion wrote.
Good knock. Looking forward to the rematch.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 7, 2018
Conor also left a short comment on Instagram: “I’ll be back.”
Note that UFC President Dana White, answering a question at a press conference about the possibility of a re-fight between Nurmagomedov and McGregor, said that he would “try to keep these guys away from each other.”
Meanwhile, UFC championship commentator Joe Rogan said that the reason for the fight that Khabib Nurmagomedov started in the gym after winning the fight with Irishman Conor McGregor was a direct provocation on the part of McGregor’s coach and his sparring partner Dillon Denis. According to Ronagh, Denis was directly next to the cage during the fight, supporting the Irishman in every possible way. But when he lost, he began to hurl insults at Nurmagomedov. Khabib, who knows English fairly well, could not stand this, climbed over the octagon and jumped on his offender with two feet first.
"I didn't hear what exactly was said, but Dillon was absolutely insulting Khabib and provoking him. And then Khabib jumped out of the cage and attacked him, took him and jumped into the crowd. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought he was just going to climb up on fence and send Dillon away,” the SportsJoe journalist quotes.
Let us remember that Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated Conor McGregor thanks to the choke hold he performed in the fourth round of the title fight.
Last night in Las Vegas, spectators witnessed the main event of recent years in the world of mixed martial arts. As part of the UFC 229 tournament, Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov and Irishman McGregor competed in a fight for the organization's lightweight championship title.
Nurmagomedov won an early victory. The Russian athlete applied a rear naked choke in the fourth round and forced McGregor to surrender.
Khabib managed to defend his championship title and remain an undefeated fighter. Now he has already won 27 fights and not a single defeat.
Such a fight, of course, could not have happened without a scandal. After the victory, Nurmagomedov jumped out of the octagon and grappled with one of McGregor’s team members, provoking a massive brawl. Police representatives were forced to intervene in the riots, and both fighters were taken outside the hall to a room under the stands, accompanied by security.
The Irish edition of the Irish Times notes that the Russian managed to achieve victory in brutal style. “UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov put an end to all attempts by the Irish fighter Conor McGregor to regain the organization’s championship belt.
The Russian, in brutal style, forced his opponent to surrender, winning after pinching his neck,” the media writes.
“In fact, after the fight ended, Yegor Creed’s song was played in the hall and Khabib ran to beat the DJ,”
- they explained on Twitter, attaching a photo of the 30-year-old UFC lightweight champion climbing over the bars.
You can find other news, materials and statistics on the page, as well as in the sports department groups on social networks
Khabib Nurmagomedov approached the fight as a favorite for several reasons: the lack of a break in performances, which his counterpart had, zero in the “Defeats” column, as well as a style that was extremely inconvenient for his opponent.
According to heavyweight fighter Alexei Oleinik, the fight ended exactly as he expected.
“Conor couldn’t do anything in the first round, Khabib simply tortured him and weakened him. It’s like this with any striker - if you don’t allow him to do anything at the beginning of the fight, later he becomes less dangerous,” Sport-Express quotes Oleinik.
Alexey Kunchenko, who made his UFC debut with a victory at the first Russian tournament in the history of the promotion, also agreed with his colleague’s opinion. He admitted that with Nurmagomedov’s correct actions at the end of the fight, McGregor should have looked noticeably tired.
“It happened even earlier, around the third round. And then Khabib finished the fight beautifully and ahead of schedule. It was nice to see that our fighter won. He’s a great guy, we’re proud of him,” the Championship quotes Kunchenko.
At the same time, the athlete expressed confidence that another fight between Nurmagomedov and McGregor will not take place.
“There will be no revenge. Khabib won unconditionally and ahead of schedule. It can only take place because of the financial component, but I don’t think Nurmagomedov needs this money. It would make sense if the fight ended in a judge's decision. Conor has already passed the stage, the Russian has put a big, fat point in this confrontation,” concluded Kunchenko.
At the same time, UFC Grand Prix winner Oleg Taktarov expressed the opinion that McGregor had chances to finish the fight in his favor, but the Irishman failed to take advantage of them.
“There was a valid moment when Khabib walked with his jaw raised. Then there was a chance. But, apparently, Nurmagomedov felt something, some kind of confidence. In the final movement, what was laid down in childhood worked. When Conor began to turn his back, I already knew that he would be strangled. Doing something like this at the end of a fight is a very energy-intensive thing,” Sport24 quotes Taktarov.
According to the athlete, his departure into boxing played a key role in McGregor’s defeat.
“If you paid attention, Fedor Emelianenko acted in a movie - then he lost, Ronda Rousey did the same - she was defeated. The transition to boxing takes away a wrestler’s breathing capacity, and it is very difficult to restore it,” the athlete noted.
But, sadly, the main topic of discussion was not the results of the fight, but the behavior of Nurmagomedov and his team after the end of the fight. So, Khabib climbed over the cage and started a fight with McGregor's wrestling coach Dillan Danis, and three members of his camp broke into the cage and attacked Conor.
Oleinik admitted that he was “ashamed of the behavior of Russian athletes” at the end of the main event of UFC 229.
- Highlights of the Nurmagomedov-McGregor fight
“Now this is being discussed more than the fight itself. What happened puts us in a negative light,” Oleynik said.
He also noted that the UFC was upset by the behavior of the Russian champion.
“Khabib’s action overshadowed the positive ending. As a rule, after a fight, especially a victorious one, they don’t do that,” the heavyweight added.
Legendary boxer Mike Tyson, who knows firsthand about such cases, also shared his impressions of the incident. Thus, one of his fights with Evander Holyfield ended in a mass fight among fans.
“I watched the McGregor-Nurmagomedov fight. This is simply incredible. I never thought something like this would happen. This is crazier than what happened after my fight,” the boxer wrote on his Twitter page.
Famous British boxer Tony Bellew also criticized Nurmagomedov’s entourage. The future opponent of the absolute world champion Alexander Usik is sure that the attack on McGregor after the fight is a flagrant act.
“Regardless of what it said, two men with bare arms had no right to attack a man who had just fought for 20 minutes. One of them also attacked from behind. Khabib won and humiliated Conor. Is this really not enough? There is only one side to blame for what happened after that - Nurmagomedov,” Bellew wrote on Twitter.
Milky Kava, manager of legendary UFC fighter Jon Jones, shares a similar opinion.
“You can say whatever you want about Conor. But he is always humble, no matter whether he wins or loses. He stood calmly while representatives of Khabib's team sneaked into the cage and attacked him. It was crazy,” says Kawa.
His teammate Daniel Cormier came to the defense of Nurmagomedov himself, who was one of the first to try to calm Khabib down after the brawl outside the octagon.
“Guys, when people are wrong, you can’t talk about who did the right thing. Conor didn't deserve this. But there are things that cannot be used to fuel interest in a fight. Religion, family, country, bus attack in Brooklyn. For Khabib, all this was not advertising the fight; he took it as a personal insult. We're just talking about people of different cultures. It’s a pity,” the UFC champion in two weight categories expressed his opinion.
As Bellator fighter Patricio Freire noted, what happened after the fight does not change the fact that Nurmagomedov had an amazing fight.
“You can’t deny that Khabib proved that he was not worth doubting. Conor fought well, both were real monsters. But Nurmagomedov turned out to be stronger,” the athlete said.
Father framed Khabib Nurmagomedov. A few hours before the fight, Adbulmanap Nurmagomedov revealed his son’s plan for the fight in an interview. Like, in the first couple of rounds there are no passes to the legs - only pressure on defense and an attempt to grab Conor McGregor's body.
Instagram can no longer be cleared
Khabib made his first pass to the legs in the 20th second of the fight. Whether it was a cunning family plan or an improvisation by one of the Nurmagomedovs is no longer so important. Conor defended himself well on the ground and pushed away from Khabib, lying very close to an advertisement for his own whiskey placed on the Octagon canvas. There was a certain metaphor in this. The Irishman, who had not competed in the UFC for almost two years and had been busy all this time with business, parties, raising a child and rather an exhibition fight with Floyd Mayweather, looked simply not ready to fight Khabib at once.
It’s not just the Russian’s skillful passes at Conor’s legs - only one fighter in the UFC managed to defend himself from Khabib’s takedowns in 10 fights - the most experienced Gleison Tibau. McGregor managed to catch a mini-knockdown in a boxing match with Nurmagomedov. In mixed martial arts, the Irishman had never allowed himself to do this before in fights with much more skilled strikers, suffering his only knockout defeat in the boxing ring from Mayweather.
But Khabib didn’t need a knockout. The incredible desire to humiliate his opponent after all the dirty statements could have ruined Nurmagomedov, but he still teetered on the brink of breakdown, although he periodically forgot himself during the rounds. Fortunately for the Dagestani team, Khabib did not make fatal mistakes at such moments and ended the fight in the way that was best for him - Conor admitted defeat and gave up, unable to bear the pain from his clenched jaw.
As it turned out, after the early victory, Khabib had enough strength left. Nurmagomedov’s explosive character is known at least from his Instagram page, posts from which are sometimes deleted by the administration of the social network out of harm’s way. What happened in Vegas ended up on hundreds of thousands of pages of the popular resource - now it’s impossible to completely clean up Instagram.
The Dagestani elegantly jumped over the fence and began beating Dillon Danis, a Bellator fighter and Conor’s jiu-jitsu coach. While Nurmagomedov was being showered with blows by the Irishman’s other sparring partners, and security was trying to break up the brawl, McGregor was already fighting the second Russian of the evening in the Octagon. The Irishman exchanged a couple of jabs with Zubaira Tukhugov.
Prison or Russia
Even Daniel Cormier, a good friend of Nurmagomedov, UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion and the American equivalent of Fedor Emelianenko, began to calm Khabib down. UFC President Dana White, who got involved, only heard from the Russian: “Put me in jail if I’m guilty. Just give me the belt!” Khabib was never given the belt - the fighters were taken to the locker rooms under guard. But as for prison, everything is still possible.
Three representatives of Khabib’s team went to the police station immediately after the end of the fight. What will happen to Nurmagomedov himself is still unknown, but this outburst of anger could cost him very dearly. The point is not only in the peculiar American laws, according to which a Russian can, if not be sent to jail, then certainly be deprived of a visa and deported to Russia. Dana White, together with the UFC management, will now closely think about Khabib’s prospects. The Russian has already frozen the payment of the fight fee until the investigation is completed - McGregor will definitely receive his money.
Nurmagomedov could become the new Conor, only calmer and more reasonable: first, give the hot-tempered Irishman revenge, once again milking this goldfish, and then, with a tightly stuffed wallet, fight for his own pleasure with Tony Ferguson or anyone else until the end of his career - his father gave Khabib more a couple of years in professional sports. Now, no one will allow the Russian and McGregor into the same room, and Khabib will most likely spend those same couple of years in litigation, mutual proceedings and deprivation of the championship belt due to a long period of inactivity outside the octagon.
If everything really goes according to this scenario, then the fight with Conor will be Khabib’s last. Yes, Nurmagomedov will leave in a certain sense at the peak and undefeated, but how many great fights could he still have?
