You talk shit long enough and sooner or later someone’s going to make you pay for it. That’s exactly what happened last night at UFC 229 as Conor McGregor got submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov via rear naked choke in the 4th Round. It was a humbling loss in a fight that McGregor was outclassed in on the ground. He never got into a rhythm and was unable to land enough strikes to ever really faze Khabib who just methodically took McGregor down time and time again with superior grappling skills.
The end right?
Not exactly.
All hell breaks loose at #UFC229 pic.twitter.com/F4G2r00jdl
— ZombieProphet (@GIFsZP) October 7, 2018
Rather than revel in the victory Khabib instead lost his shit. He literally jumped out of the octagon and attacked, what the broadcast team ID’d as, McGregor’s jiu jitsu coach. A guy who just defended his crown and snuffed a loudmouth literally jumped the fence to fight a guy in the crowd. Then all hell broke loose and you could hear Joe Rogan’s legit concern on the broadcast, “No, no, no, don’t do this!”
It was like a scene straight out of the WWE, but this was anything but fake. Khabib’s buddy and fellow champion Daniel Cormier even had to come out of the crowd in an effort to calm the dude down.
Worst of all, what appeared to be one of Khabib’s teammates jumped INTO the ring and sucker punched McGregor from behind, who was up until that point not participating in the chaos.
Khabib’s team jumping into the octagon to sucker punch McGregor is one of the dirtiest things I’ve ever seen. #ufc #ufc229 pic.twitter.com/CqKNut5uOC
— The 300s (@The300sBoston) October 7, 2018
I’m sure Dana White was counting the PPV sales in his head for a rematch, but he told Khabib you are not getting this belt in front of this crowd right now.
“I’m not going to put this belt on you right now because if I do people are gonna start throwing shit into tge octagon.” – Dana White to Khabib after that ugly scene #ufc #ufc229
— The 300s (@The300sBoston) October 7, 2018
To be fair, McGregor talked shit for weeks leading up to the fight, and there was the whole Brooklyn bus incident so a lot of people in my twitter mentions were saying Conor got what he deserved. But last night was different, the post fight mayhem was just dirtier.
Khabib had a press conference somewhere past my bedtime and while he did offer an apology, he still didn’t seem to understand the issue with what had just happened.
“I no understand how people can talk about I jump on cage,” Nurmagomedov said. “He talk about my religion, he talk about my country, he talk about my father. He come to Brooklyn, and he broke bus. He almost kill a couple people, worry about this (expletive). Why people talk about I jump on cage? Why people still talk about this? I no understand. My California seven years. Everybody know who I am. All my friends. Everybody who know me, they know who I am.”
Listen, it’s cage fighting. Naturally the sport is going to attract some crazy fellas, but brawling with people in the crowd while your teammate is sucker punching a fighter in the octagon is a bad, bad look for Team Khabib.
Three of Khabib’s teammates were arrested after the shenanigans, but it seems like everyone agreed to just call it a night.
“Per UFC president Dana White, the three members of Khabib’s team that were directly involved in the post-fight brawl were taken into custody, but were subsequently released after McGregor decided not to press charges. He also confirmed that Khabib’s cheque has been withheld by the Commission.”
Wild, wild night and McGregor’s already planning for a rematch.
Good knock. Looking forward to the rematch.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 7, 2018