UFC lightweight contender Islam Makhachev has looked back on the post-fight brawl between his teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor’s corner at UFC 229.
The 2018 pay-per-view certainly delivered on the bad blood between McGregor and Khabib. Unfortunately, it did so more than we could ever have imagined or desired. What started as one of the most anticipated headliners in MMA history, quickly deteriorated into its biggest blemish, an out-of-control brawl inside and outside the Octagon.
In front of a sold-out crowd in Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena, “The Eagle” defended his UFC Lightweight title for the first time. He did so by way of a fourth-round neck crank submission. However, McGregor’s pre-fight trash talk had gotten out of hand, with the Irishman constantly attacking the Dagestani’s family, religion, and country. With that in mind, the action unsurprisingly didn’t end once the fight was stopped.
Makhachev Says Khabib Was “Pushed To The Limit”
While Khabib jumped the cage to attack McGregor’s teammate Dillon Danis, members of the champion’s team scampered around the cage to get involved, with some even entering it to get their hands on McGregor. Along with Zubaira Tukhugov and Asadulla Emirgaev, current top-five UFC lightweight Islam Makhachev was one of the individuals involved in the skirmish.
Now, speaking at the UFC 267 post-fight press conference, the 30-year-old has revisited the incident. Discussing what made Khabib react the way he did after defeating his bitter rival, Makhachev suggested McGregor crossed the line prior to the fight. With the constant verbal attack on close areas of his life, Makhachev believes the former UFC lightweight champion was simply overwhelmed with emotion.
“There is a limit to everything. If somebody crosses that line, you can’t control yourself anymore. In that moment, he was pushed to the limit, he was overwhelmed by emotions and suddenly saw the man talking all that crap, and… He just could not hold himself. Anybody, not just me or Khabib. The thing is, we are not faking stuff or trash talking. We do not play games. If we seem to not like somebody, we do not like him for real.” (h/t Sportskeeda)
Despite Dana White’s threats to suspend and remove those involved from the roster, Khabib’s promise to walk away from the UFC should that happen kept his teammates in the promotion. Now over three years later, both Makhachev and Tukhugov were successful at UFC 267 last month.
Do you agree with Islam Makhachev? Did Conor McGregor cross the line with his pre-fight trash talk?
