Chaos McGregor vs. Khabib: Nurmagomedov won by fourth-round tap out.
Khabib Nurmagomedov viciously choked out Conor McGregor in the third round to cap off UFC 229 on Saturday night, and his third-round submission of the trash-talking Irishman leaped over the octagon and spilled wine into the crowd well after the fight was over.
The result was a wild championship finish that stained a picture-perfect performance for Khabib’s 27th straight victory without a loss in his career. It also prompted UFC president Dana White to send Nurmagomedov home without McGregor’s championship belt, and left three members of Khabib’s crew in jail.
What the hell happened?
McGregor trash talked Khabib in the weeks leading up to the fight, and Nurmagomedov is a very respectful man. He used McGregor’s words as motivation, but he took them to heart, too. Nurmagomedov, a devout Muslim, kept his cool throughout much of the pre-fight hype with McGregor attempting to get in his head. On one occasion, McGregor jokingly offered to give Khabib a drink of his new whiskey as a sign of disrespect.
So Nurmagomedov beat McGregor every chance he could during the fight. Khabib eventualy won by submission in the third round. But even after referee Herb Dean pried Nurmagomedov’s bicep from McGregor’s chin, Khabib still wasn’t done.
He stood over Conor, showing the intensity he seldom showed during the press conferences and seemed to yell at him. After the official separated them, Nurmagomedov turned his attention to someone outside of the octagon, assumedly someone from Conor’s team. Khabib threw his mouthguard at them, and that’s where things escalated.
Nurmagomedov climbed over the fence, jumped outside the octagon and chased down McGregor’s trainer, spilling over to the audience.
As Khabib made his way back to the Octagon, one of his men hopped the fence and hit McGregor with a flurry of punches hook. Then another one of Khabib’s men rushed the octagon and landed a hook on McGregor’s face. It was a disgusting moment, one that stained Khabib’s impressive victory over the McGregor.
Here’s another angle of what might be the wildest sequence in UFC history.
As a result, White second guessed giving the belt to Khabib, though announcer Bruce Buffer eventually declared him the champion. Both competitors were escorted out of T-Mobile arena.
When the commotion died down, Dana White also talked to the FS2 crew about the incident. According to him, three members of Nurmagomedov’s team were sent to jail. Per, MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti,
