Khabib “The Eagle” Nurmagomedov defeated Conor “The Notorious” McGregor in UFC 229’s main event where Khabib submitted McGregor in the fourth round with a neck crank.
McGregor tapped out after Khabib had essentially dominated the entire fight. The pride of Ireland looked exhausted for a majority of the fight, only winning one round in my estimation.
Khabib dominated the fight with a punishing ground game that left McGregor more than exhausted. Khabib used a tactic where when they would wrestle, he would put extra pressure on McGregor’s chest and lungs to shorten his breaths and leave him breathless.
The fight was decent, but it was not as exciting as the co-main event where Tony Ferguson defeated Anthony Pettis, and it was not as exciting as the undercard fight where Derrick Lewis knocked out Alexander Volkov in the third round.
Unfortunately, even though it was a decent fight it will be completely over shadowed by the roller coaster of events that took place directly after the fight had ended. Khabib screamed at McGregor after winning with his submission, before looking out of the ring to one of McGregor’s teammates.
Nurmagomedov then proceeded to jump over the fence of the octagon, and attack McGregor’s teammate Dillon Danis for comments that Danis had made about Khabib. One of the Khabib’s team members then jumped into the octagon and attacked McGregor from behind.
This is unheard of in the UFC and has been condemned by many parties that surround the UFC. UFC President Dana White would not even give Khabib the belt that he fought for and deserved after the fight.
People are trying to defend Khabib and his teams’ actions, yet no one should be surprised with how aggressively Nurmagomedov could be punished. Even though he is the new lightweight champion, Khabib could be suspended, fined, sued, and even have his title stripped because of his actions.
It will be interesting to see what happens with Khabib over the next few weeks, but regardless he did win the fight. McGregor has already called Dana White and requested a rematch, so we will see what gets planned for the UFC next.
