John Kavanagh describes what went through his mind when Khabib attacked McGregor's team at UFC 229

Conor McGregor's coach, John Kavanagh, said that the infamous post-fight brawl between Khabib Nurmagomedov and The Notorious One's team is one of MMA's 'most disappointing, darkest' episodes.

The Straight Blast Gym's head coach was present when the brawl took place. It was over coach Kavanagh's head that Khabib jumped off the octagon's fence towards Dillon Danis and the remaining of McGregor's crew in the wicked incident.

A lover and protector of mixed martial arts, coach Kavanagh, was already unimpressed with the way things were going ahead of the fight. Talking to BT Sport, he revealed what went through his mind at that moment.

"What went through my mind was 'duck' [a double-meaning pun]. Back home [in Ireland], I'm the president of the amateur mixed martial arts association. And it's my goal, and it's my dream to get my sport recognized by the Irish government. I would love for the kids coming up to be able to represent their country with pride and go away compete as the national amateur boxing team does, and our national amateur badminton team does, and all of our sports. I want MMA to be the same as all of them, to be no different. It's just a sport at the end of the day. And so, you know, to have dark moments like this to be so public and to be vilified by the press and whatnot. It makes everything take a few steps back. So, it's disappointing, to say the least. You just don't want that to be part of our game," declared coach Kavanagh. "Fair enough, there was a very emotional build-up to this, but then it was over. Khabib have won, congratulations, shake hands, you're the better man on that particular night. [But] things spilled over and what happened, happened. It's in the past now, and I'm glad it doesn't have that feel to it this time." (H/T Sportskeeda for quotes.)

Epic photo of @TeamKhabib power stomping @dillondanis. #UFC229 pic.twitter.com/4CZU9HEFSx

— Raymond Rafferty (@XXRafferty) October 8, 2018

In the opinion of many MMA analysts and fighters, McGregor and Khabib crossed the line in a series of intense call-outs ahead of their fight at UFC 229. The Notorious One made some personal attacks directed at Khabib's father, making the UFC Lightweight champion particularly irritated.

Khabib won the fight via submission in the fourth round. Instead of celebrating, he decided to run across the octagon towards where McGregor's team was and jumped over the fence to initiate a massive brawl.

John Kavanagh disagreed with the build-up to the Khabib versus McGregor fight

UFC 229: Khabib v McGregor Press Conference

In the same interview with BT Sport, coach John Kavanagh admitted that he was not comfortable with the 'nasty' build-up to the UFC 229 main event between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

"If I am being 100 percent honest as well, like, I like - I love MMA and the sport. I love martial arts. I didn't really... I didn't enjoy the build-up to this [fight between Khabib and McGregor] at all. It was particularly nasty, you know, whatever word you want to use. And I got kind of pulled asunder because I said that the build-up for this fight was all about a kind of revenge, and anger, and hate compared to the build-up for the [Donald] Cerrone fight, which was about love," said coach Kavanagh. "So, we are back to training for the love of it, competing for the love of it, and it is a much better place to be."

While Khabib is not clear about his return to UFC, McGregor will make his first fight in 2021 next weekend, when he will enter the octagon one more time to have a rematch with Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.

Would you like to see McGregor rematching Khabib if he beats Poirier? Sound off in the comments.

Conor McGregor says Khabib has "fake respect out of fear."Also calls his dad a coward.#UFC229 pic.twitter.com/1wV5AK0HWF

— Bryan Fonseca (@BryanFonsecaNY) September 20, 2018