The UFC 229 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which ended with a chaotic post-fight brawl, took place back in October 2018 and outside of former UFC lightweight champion, Conor McGregor, most of the major players have moved on with their lives.
That includes reigning 155-pound kingpin, Khabib Nurmagomedov, who already served his disciplinary suspension for jumping over the cage that fateful night in “Sin City” and has since been booked to make his next title defense at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi.
Unfortunately for McGregor, he’s got nothing else to talk about, at least in terms of combat sports. He doesn’t have a fight lined up, holds no titles, and can’t seem to stay out of trouble with the law. I guess there are only so many questions you can ask about Irish whiskey.
“I gave my respect and congrats, he won the match, let’s see what happens next time,” McGregor told self-help guru, Tony Robbins. “I’m confident we’ll get it again – let’s go again. I am humble in victory or defeat, no matter what. It’s a sport at the end of the day. A gruesome sport, but it’s a sport. So I respect it. I was defeated on that night.”
McGregor’s loss to Nurmagomedov, a decisive fourth-round submission, was only half the story. After the final bell, “The Eagle” flew into the crowd to attack Dillon Danis, McGregor’s jiu-jitsu trainer, setting off a massive brawl that prompted members of Team Dagestan to hunt down “Notorious.”
Who just so happened to land the first and last blow.
“I am very self-defense minded through growing up,” McGregor said. “I know where my entrances and my exits are. I’m very aware of my surroundings. So I backed myself up against the cage wall, where I thought I was good. And what happened was, two of his teammates ran and jumped over, right behind me. And for me, with my mindset, it was fascinating for me to watch that back, because I got to a safe place. I got to a place where I was aware, and I could see any incoming threats and deal with it. They came right over my back, right over my back.”
It was fascinating for me, as well, because that self-defense mindset didn’t prevent him from getting dropped by Nurmagomedov in the second stanza. Perhaps McGregor was better designed for those goofy five-on-five MMA fights.
“As he threw that right hand, I threw a left hand,” McGregor continued. “Boom! There’s an image, an aerial image, of the right hand just whipping by my face and my left hand just landing flush down the pipe! The final blow of the night! So that’s it. I win.”
Let’s all extend our congratulations to the winner, who is taking the longest victory lap in UFC history.