Earlier today (Thurs. October 4, 2018) the UFC 229 pre-fight press conference took place. The event was fronted by UFC President Dana White and featured Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. However, neither man was present at the same time. Khabib and White started off the press conference on time, taking various questions from the media.
Eventually, Khabib realized he had done his job, showed up on time, and fulfilled his obligations. He picked up his title, thanked everyone for coming, and left after 15 minutes. White was left on stage alone, dumbfounded, and answered questions from the media himself. Several minutes later, McGregor finally showed up and began answer questions himself – taking shots at Khabib in the process.
Shortly after the presser, White joined ESPN’s “SportsCenter” to talk about the events. White detailed the events that happened at McGregor and Khabib’s first press conference over a week ago. The UFC boss believes McGregor got in Khabib and his manager’s heads. White called Khabib’s actions at today’s press conference a “perfect counter-punch” (via MMA Junkie):
“If you really look at what happened in New York (at the press conference), I think Conor McGregor absolutely got in his head, got in his manager’s head, rattled and shook them all in New York,” White said.
“I thought today was the perfect counter-punch by Khabib. Khabib went out there at 3 o’clock, said, ‘I’m a professional, I’m here, I’m here to answer questions, and then I’m going to leave.’ I thought it was played perfectly by Khabib.”
What do you think about White’s comments?
