The post-fight brawl at UFC 229 last year following Khabib Nurmagomedov’s convincing submission victory over Conor McGregor was chaotic, with many flashpoints happening at once.
Now, for the first time, McGregor himself has given a lengthy blow-by-blow account of exactly what happened from his perspective during an interview with self-help guru Tony Robbins.
Read his full account of what happened below.
“So what happened was, the fight was done, the match was done,” McGregor told Robbins. “(Khabib) climbed over the fence and jumped into the crowd to make a bit of noise, but as soon as he jumped into the crowd, he cowered away. I like to call it ‘scurried away,’ because they’re little rats, they are. I’ll being honest. He scurried away.
“I gave my respect and congrats. He won the match. Let’s see what happens next time. 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 the night.
“He jumped in to cause this chaos and went to attack. He was trying to just hide away when he jumped in, so he didn’t really do anything. But I saw this take place, I got up off the ground and said ‘OK, now I’m back in the mix’ (and) jumped on top of the cage. As I jumped on top of the cage, his brother came sprinting across and jumped up on top of the cage also to climb in and help him and join the fight.
“I seen him there. It was like a Christmas present. He was right there. I smacked him right in the eye socket, and we started fighting on top of the cage. It got broken up.
“We ended up in the cage then. He was trying to get past the security. I was just kind of watching everything. I am very self-defense minded through growing up. I know where my entrances and my exits are. I’m very aware of my surroundings. So when the fight was breaking out, and I knew there was people in and out, there were a lot of rogue people that I wasn’t aware who was with who, who was with him, who’s with security.
“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 was good. 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. But one of them, the first one, the Chechen man, ran in front of me and went over to the brother that got smacked and was like, ‘What happened?’ I don’t know what he was saying, but then he turned back and saw me. But I had already saw him, so as he turned back, boom – I smacked him. He wobbled. And as I smacked him and rocked him, another one jumped in from over the back, and he sly-hooked me from the side. And then I covered up.
“That got separated, and then the final one was the original brother who was on the top of the cage – he broke free from the security, ran at 100 miles an hour towards me. He threw a right hand. As he threw that right hand, I threw a left hand. 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.”
