NURMAGOMEDOV SPOILS MCGREGOR’S RETURN TO UFC

After spending nearly two years away from the octagon, Conor McGregor made his much-anticipated return to the UFC on Oct. 6 to fight against defending lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Though most were excited to see the “King” back in action, it was the chaos that followed the fight that has the community buzzing.

The fight’s tone went as expected – McGregor being the aggressor right off the bat, aiming to stay on his feet and make it more of a boxing match, while Nurmagomedov took to the ground, using his superior grappling moves to control the fight in a more familiar stage.

The first round went over fairly evenly, Conor landing some blows to the head of Khabib, but it was mainly controlled by Nurmagomedov putting McGregor into a leg lock.

In the second round, the real entertainment began. McGregor caught on to Nurmagomedov’s tactics of trying to take him to the ground, so he spent the majority of the beginning avoiding Khabib’s lunges. Nurmagomedov then decided to give in to a bit of boxing, catching Conor off-guard and landing a right hook directly to his head.

With his opponent stumbling backwards, Khabib took advantage and proceeded to absolutely pummel McGregor for the remainder of the round.

From here, the contest was over. Though Nurmagomedov wasted a lot of energy in the second round, McGregor was just too battered to put up much more of a fight, ultimately tapping out midway through the fourth round, after being put in a rear naked choke by Khabib.

Then all hell broke loose.

‘Tasteless’ reaction

Leading up to UFC 229, there was plenty of banter exchanged through interviews and pressers. Many things were said about the opposing side, and some verbal statements flared a bit more offense than others. McGregor, being the enormous trash-talker that he is, went after Khabib’s religion, family, country, even as far as comparing his manager to a terrorist.

Along with this, back in April, McGregor was arrested for throwing a chair through the window of a bus transporting Nurmagomedov and his crew after a press conference to promote UFC 223. So, it is safe to say there was, and is, bad blood between the two.

After defeating McGregor last week, Nurmagomedov began shouting at him before celebrating, where he gestured towards Conor’s Jiu Jitsu coach, Dillon Danis. Danis began to shout back, and from here the chaos began. Khabib leaped over the fence of the octagon and attempted to attack Danis, and quickly a mosh pit ensued, blows being exchanged from everyone in the area, while security personnel did their best to stop the all-out brawl.

While the free-for-all raged out on the ground floor, a group of Khabib’s friends from his crew climbed over the fence and into the octagon, where they hit McGregor with a flurry of cheap shots, inciting a riot within the ring.

Because of these tasteless actions, what could have been an amazing night in the UFC turned into an absolute joke. Khabib destroyed McGregor and could have taken the victory with pride, as he is now the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. Instead, Nurmagomedov decided to throw that all away and tarnish an otherwise amazing event.

Mental meltdown

The attack on Danis was absolutely childish and shows that Nurmagomedov is not as mentally strong as a champion needs to be. True, it is part of the fighting scene: trash-talking and trying to get under the opponent’s skin. Not only does it give one person a mental advantage over the other, but it also sells the fight. The UFC is a business, and what better way to gain some attention than to say something completely out-of-line and absurd?

Breaking under this pressure shows that Nurmagomedov is, in fact, beatable, however. He is never going to be an undisputed front-runner for future events because opponents know just the way to get into his head.

Now, although Khabib’s actions were uncalled for, the reasoning behind them is warranted. There should be no room for attacking someone’s religious beliefs, even if you do not agree with them. As for Nurmagomedov’s crew, attacking a man who is already down is absolutely disgusting, unnecessary, and just straight-up cowardly.

Though McGregor said some nasty things and is a notorious trash-talker, he is also gracious in defeat. The man knows when he has been beaten and accepts his flaws. He even went as far as not pressing criminal charges after being viciously attacked with no defense. Following all this chaos, he even tweeted, “Good knock. Looking forward to the rematch” – further showing that he is miles ahead of Nurmagomedov in terms of being mentally strong.