Off the back of UFC 229 back in October of 2018, former undisputed lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov was involved in an infamous post-fight brawl with Bellator MMA submission ace, Dillon Danis — where he scaled the cage to attack the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt. And three years later, the now-retired Khabib has revealed why he scaled the Octagon in pursuit of Danis.
Headlining UFC 229 against former two-weight champion, Conor McGregor, Khabib submitted the Dubliner with a neck crank in the fourth round, successfully defending his lightweight championship having taken the vacant crown with a victory over Al Iaquinta earlier that year at UFC 223.
Having engaged in multiple bad-blooded press conferences with McGregor prior to the October meeting, Khabib threw his mouthguard toward the Octagon fence following a submission win over the Crumlin native, before jumping the fence and diving, feet-first toward Danis before engaging in a brawl with McGregor’s corner team.
As Khabib was eventually corralled, members of his corner scaled the Octagon fence as McGregor returned to his feet after the submission loss, before throwing multiple strikes toward the back of the former champion’s head.
With security entering the Octagon to attempt to separate both groups, McGregor was eventually brought backstage, while Khabib was later corralled as Dana White explained how he would not be strapping the lightweight title on the Sambo ace, for fear of crowd trouble as a result.
Appearing on Mike Tyson’s podcast, Hot Boxin’ recently, Khabib explained why he choose to scale the Octagon and attack Danis — claiming that he had to “bite” McGregor’s heart for tapping to the submission rather than go unconscious.
“Okay, when I catch his (Conor McGregor’s) neck and I choke him like he tap you know,” Khabib explained to Tyson. “And I think, hey, you bring like thousands people from Ireland here from different part of world, and you tap in front of them. And you talk like about warrior or something like this? How you can tap? Go (to) sleep. Go (to) sleep.“
“And he tap, and I was like, okay, it’s not enough,” Khabib explained. “I need something you know, like. And I see some his corners like talk with me and I think, oh, I have to bite his heart you know.“