Have things died down now that it appears that McGregor threw the first post-match punch? No wonder he didn't want to press charges.

Bisping has changed his tune on the whole affair

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbR2jVtlaJY

https://www.bbc.com/sport/mixed-martial-arts/45818304

This story is glorious. Putin asking his dad to take it easy on him

I haven't watched that video yet, but the Russian guy who threw at Conor said on Twitter before the fight that he was going to do that, then he bragged that he went through with it after the fight. So if Conor really did "throw the first punch" it would be some coincidence.

From what I recall Conor was sitting on his stool, then got up with his hands on the fence and that guy just leapt in a started throwing bombs from behind. I'll check the video later but have zero recollection of Conor starting anything.

If they're going to go by what was said prior to the fight McGregor is on very thin ice there then.
I think Bisping (and others) are referring to when Connor jumps onto the fence, then swings at the bloke next to him.

There's a video showing McGregor goes to climb of the cage, the Russian on top of the cage grabs his foot and tries to start beating him with the blonde wig. Both go back down into the cage, the Russian goes for McGregor and gets caught with a beautiful early left hand which backs him up, the other Russian in the red tee spots it climbs over and hits McGregor on the back of the head and follows it up with a weak combo (doesn't look like a fighter). A third Russian then runs at McGregor who then ties him up. That's where the McGregor action ended I think.

I believe the Khabib brawl outside the cage had already started at this point.

It was either the Joe Rogan podcast or Brendan's Shaub's podcast, I heard someone say it was Khabib's boxing coach. Which explains Khabib's stand up skillz.

Mog - Here's the video of the full events: the original footage didn't include what happened in the ring after Khabib jumped out. This does, including McGregor and another guy trying to punch each other on the fence, after Khabib jumped out. You can see him being held back from McGregor when they both get down, and the two guys who went for McGregor jumping in then (though the camera moves away and doesn't catch them going for him, but that's all been seen before). I presume the guy from the fence being held back is the 3rd one who was arrested - in the second link below you can see him go for McGregor again after the two fence jumpers are held back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNpcG4fSZzo

This one gathers together various different angles of the same stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUXJlreM4zQ

Dana White said those guys who punched McGregor are never going to fight in the UFC again and Kebab says if that is true neither is he. I believe at least one of them will keep their word

Well whatever else you might say about him, Dana White is a man of his word

https://www.google.com/search?q=dana+wh ... herdog.com

Very good. That picture was crying out for that treatment.

The rumour is that Khabib planned to retire after this fight. Defeat the UFC's "greatest" and walk away undefeated with a legacy as the GOAT in his division, if not the sport.

Unfortunately that legacy would now be very tarnished but I still doubt he cares that much. It's still not certain he'll ever be able to get a VISA to fight in the US again, and even if he did, he might be banned for so long by Nevada that the UFC are forced to strip him.

It might be a good choice for him to just follow through on the alleged initial plan and just eat the tarnished exit.

Is this the first time Khabib has been involved in off the ball incidents or does he have form?

It has been pretty out of character for him. He's never came across like he cares what other people think, his opponents or anyone else, so he doesn't go out of his way to be nice and likeable. But he's usually relatively respectful and quietly spoken. I was pretty disappointed at this. Not so much what he did, but definitely what his team-mates did. I was also disappointed that he wasn't the the stone-cold, unemotional terminator that he had been in the past. He clearly let it all get to him and reacted even in victory, with outraged and over-the-top violent retribution, when it should have all ended as soon as Conor tapped. That was disappointing, but it has, so far at-least, been relatively out of character for him.

yeah, nah.

I see I'm going to have to seek expert advice on this: my UFC-mad son and mixed martial art practising nephew.

Blind Khabib fanboys are just as bad as blind Conor fanboys.

Of course he doesn't want to exit the UFC on that note. If he stuck his Dagestani sheep hat on, took the microphone from Joe Rogan and said, "that's what happens when you talk shit about Dagestan", gave the thumbs up to the crowd and rode off into the sunset, now that would be an exit.

Going out after leaping into the crowd like a moron, your team starting brawls with the defeated opponent, being suspended and stripped of your title (if that happens), or having your VISA cancelled, etc. Any of that would severely scrub some of the polish off on otherwise glorious exit, let alone all of it (depending on how much of it happens). No fighter wants to retire on that note mate. Let alone one as proud as him. So sorry but, "nah, yeah".

In fact, I think the rumours were probably true, he probably did plan to retire. But he can't now, he doesn't want to go out as a villain and a thug. Maybe a new goal is 30-0, then retire, and keep it clean and under-control until then, and all this shit will blow over and won't be the note he retires on.

Loads of fights unbeaten. ashed the fark out of McGregor. I'm not a fanboy but I think you are way off the mark. If he doesn't fight again he is going down as a UFC legend

McGregor got in his head, a lot of that political and family stuff McGregor was saying was much more sensitive than Westerners realise.

He won't retire though, fighters rarely do when they have a win like that. He's worth more now too, rematch is best bet imo.

McGregor wasn't in his head, at least where in regards to messing up Nurmagomedov's ability to fight. Khabib kept it under wraps then beat him like a dog in the cage where it mattered most.

There's a good breakdown on Youtube of the pre-fight talk between the two. McGregor, or someone on his team went into great depth researching Khabib and his team, finding information that would unsettle him e.g. calling his manager a terrorist snith and bringing up his connection to Ramzan Kadyrov. Then, during the fight, you can hear Khabib talking to McGregor saying "let's talk now."

Why is he going to have an issue getting a visa?

Mog I'm high so this is going to be a bit of a ramble...

His legacy as one of the most dominant MMA fighters was cemented when he manhandled Mcgregor. That was specifically what I was referring to. He's on a 10 year 27 fight streak - that's Fedor territory right there. We can certainly talk about the quality of many of his opponents but that puts him in a pretty small group I think.

Now regarding the brawl and all that came before it and after. I don't think Khabib's tactic of using the whataboutism with CM as an excuse is going to help his case much. You don't have to sink to other people's level but CM really amped the personal shit talking with this one. Yes it's supposed to be the hype show for the fight and it's all business etc but he finally met a guy that took it personally. He called German Dennis Siver a Nazi years ago so he likes the nasty personal insults.

Khabib was way off-line I agree. He f**ked up and he should get a hefty fine and suspension but it should be kept reasonable I think. Dana has now said repeatedly that he won't be stripped but it is Dana White the goof who flip flops constantly so make of that what you will. I'm just saying are you really surprised? Your man Rogan said the day after that once he had slept on it he got over his outrage he had the night before and eventually decided it wasn't that big a deal.This isn't the same as Tiger jumping into the crowd at Augusta on the 9th with his trusty driver and cracking skulls. That's all I'm trying to say.

There's been plenty of stupid shit by a lot of people including both KN and CM so it's going to be a bit hypocritical to throw the book at KN even if this went way further that where we've been before. Everyone came out smelling like shit in this one.

And you keep mentioning the fanboys but look at you going full tilt at Khabib all thread long - please show me your multiple posts of outrage when connor shoved a referee at the Bellator event.

I will say 2 things though: the man who whacked Connor from behind needs to go. That's just not on. And Dillon Danis a c*nt and hopefully RDA cleans his clock when they meet up.

Suppose we'll find out on Monday whats shaking.

Don't worry about Mog, he did his usual schtick of making a statement then doubling down hard when challenged.

Speaking of Fedor, I see he's through to the Bellatoe HW Grand Prix Final after he cleaned up Chael Sonnen.

McGregor says he was beaten fair and square BUT only because he didn't prepare properly.

It is the truth.

Yes it's the same truth every time he looses. I will just have to take his and you word for it. Unlike you two I wasn't there to see him fail to take kebab seriously in his training. Obviously had he taken him seriously he would have won. Just like all the other fights he lost.

He said that he didn’t take Khabib’s stand up fighting seriously and that the overhand right he got hit with changed the fight.
He’s right and it was obvious at the time, just like the time he got hit hard by Nate Diaz.

Just because a fighter bests you once doesn’t mean he’ll beat you again. We need a rematch.

True, a rematch is deserved. But for who - Aldo or Holloway?

So he didn't respect Khabib's stand up, he wasn't fit enough and wasn't good enough to stuff enough takedowns or fight from the ground.

Lazy, arrogant and disrespectful. Completely deserved result.

I was thinking more along the lines of growing up in Chechnya with a dad who made you wrestle bears.

Nobody really takes Khabib's stand-up seriously. Although Khabib's stand up has definitely improved, it's gone from amateurish to only average. And that overhand right definitely changed the fight. It was the defining moment.

In any case, the next fight really needs to be Ferguson vs Khabib, that fight has to happen. It's kind of hard to see Khabib winning, but at the same time, it's hard to imagine him losing to anyone. Either way, Ferguson is a nightmare for Khabib. Both his cardio fitness and stand-up are on a different level to Khabib, plus on the ground he's lethal off his back and his submission skills are better than Khabib. Khabib's big advantage is his smothering wrestling which is obv. on level ten billion. Is that alone enough to put away Ferguson? Possibly, it has been for everyone else. But I want to find out, and Tony more than deserves the shot.

As far as a Conor rematch ... after the Al Iaquinta fight and Khabib's stand up defence was exposed as so poor, one eye-brow was raised on the forehead of basically every striker in the division. Conor's striking is so next-level when it comes to pin-point precision and power that you can't blame him for not taking his (stand up) preparation seriously. When Conor said he didn't take the training seriously, he didn't mean he was "slacking off". He meant he didn't take Khabib's stand-up seriously, and after the Al Iaquinta fight, nobody could blame him.


A Conor v Khabib rematch would definitely be interesting, just to see how Conor responds both in and out of the octagon. Does he keep going with the shit talk pre-fight? What does he do differently strategically during the fight? Even if it was exactly the same, Conor is always a threat standing and no matter what the Conor-haters want to believe, Conor could have ended that fight with one left at any stage, and the same would be true in a rematch.

But Ferguson not only deserves it more, he's also a bigger threat to Khabib than Conor is. I reckon Khabib v Ferguson is 50/50. Khabib v Conor and anything but another convincing Khabib win would be a surprise.

Israel Adesanya just dismantled Derek Brunson at UFC 230 with some surgical striking. He stuffed all takedown attempts and made Brunson look as bad as he said he was in the pre-fight lead up.

YOYO might just want to change this to the all encompassing MMA thread.

This is a good fight too

Thought Adesanya was great.

I was surprised by how tough Marshman's chin was. But it's for nothing if you stand there getting punched in it and ot doing much yourself.

Souza and Cormier were good.

The one time King of UFC has retired.

https://www.rte.ie/amp/1038591/

Will he continue his boxing career?

Roberto Duran?
Wilfredo Benitez?
Gerald McClellan?
Salvador Sanchez's mother?

Guess the Irish media being tied by legality doesn't matter any more.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/ ... llegations