5 Most controversial UFC moments of the decade (2010-2019)

#2 The UFC 229 post-fight brawl

UFC 229's post-fight melee caused all sorts of controversy

The feud between Lightweight superstars Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov had already boiled over by the time the duo met for Nurmagomedov’s UFC Lightweight title in October 2018 – more on that later – but nobody could’ve expected the controversy that occurred once their fight was over.

The fight ended in the fourth round, as ‘The Eagle’ secured a neck crank on the Irishman and forced him to submit, but evidently making McGregor tap out wasn’t enough for the Dagestani – who had taken all kinds of insults from ‘The Notorious One’ during the build to the fight. And so a snarling Khabib scaled the Octagon fence – and promptly leapt into the crowd to attack McGregor’s training partner Dillon Danis.

Chaos then ensued as while security attempted to separate Nurmagomedov and Danis, McGregor was involved in an angry scuffle with two of the Dagestani’s cornermen, UFC fighters Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Zubaira Tukhugov, with punches being exchanged between all parties. The brawl was eventually calmed, but the situation had become so bad that UFC President Dana White refused to present Nurmagomedov with his title belt.

In the end, all of the involved parties were suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for lengthy periods for their part in the controversial incident, and the UFC was left red-faced following its own equivalent of StrikeForce’s notorious ‘Nashville Brawl’ back in 2010.