Khabib says it’s McGregor’s fault he jumped out the cage

On October 6, 2018 Khabib Nurmagomedov met Conor McGregor in the cage after what felt like years of sniping back and forth at each other. The bout ended by fourth round submission, but the fight was far from over.

After getting the tap from McGregor, Nurmagomedov briefly celebrated. He then launched himself out of the cage to start a brawl with McGregor’s coaches. That brawl spilled into the cage with McGregor tangling with Nurmagomedov’s corner.

Fines and sanctions were handed down and both parties went their separate ways. Though there has been plenty of taunts over social media between the pair, we’ve not seem them come face-to-face since.

Nurmagomedov, who retired from MMA competition in 2020, was recently on the Full Send Podcast. There he spoke about that infamous night in Vegas. He also failed to take any responsibility for what went down.

According to the Dagestani, the post-fight fracas was because he hadn’t had his fill of combat within the sanctioned contest.

“First of all, I was preparing for war,” he said (ht bjpenn). “I come inside the cage, I fight with this guy, and he tapped, I’m like, why I come here, why I train so hard for this? You’re going to tap easily like this? I just take his chin, you know, and he tapped.”

“This one makes me upset too, because I accept more than what I find inside the cage, I expect more. Honestly, I don’t remember everything, I’m going to be honest. I remember someone from his corner saying something and it was crazy emotional moment for me. I’m like okay this party not finished.”

“I’m not going to say I am proud of something like this, maybe at the age, right now of 33-and-a-half, maybe I’m not going to jump right now. But, at that time (I did).”

Nurmagomedov defended the UFC lightweight title that night against McGregor. He held that belt for the next two years before vacating it after a successful defence versus Justin Gaethje.

Since retiring Nurmagomedov has seemed content to coach/corner his friends and family (in both the UFC and Bellator) and work on his own promotion; Eagle FC.