The 5 biggest UFC feuds of the decade (2010-2019)

#2 Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor

Khabib Nurmagomedov may yet renew his rivalry with Conor McGregor.

The most recent feud on this list, current UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s rivalry with former champion Conor McGregor currently lies dormant, as ‘The Eagle’ has stated on numerous occasions that he’s not all that interested in a rematch with the controversial Irishman, who he defeated last October in one-sided fashion. Even if we never get a second fight between the two, though, this one remains one of the most heated feuds in UFC history.

It’s actually hard to pinpoint quite where the issue between the two began; most likely, the problems started in late 2016, when the UFC scrapped the idea of Nurmagomedov challenging then-champion Eddie Alvarez for the Lightweight crown, and put McGregor into the fight instead. On the same night that ‘The Notorious One’ violently knocked out Alvarez to claim the title, Khabib destroyed Michael Johnson on the undercard, affirming his status as the top contender in the division.

But McGregor stepped away from the UFC temporarily, preferring to pursue a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather than defend his title against the Dagestani. McGregor was forced to vacate his title, and from there, the fighters began to sling mud at each other over Twitter, seemingly building to a likely fight in 2018.

It was at April 2018’s UFC 223 that things came to a head; Nurmagomedov, who was set to fight Max Holloway – and eventually replacement Al Iaquinta – for the vacant title, confronted McGregor’s training partner Artem Lobov at a hotel housing some of the fighters, essentially threatening him for some McGregor-supporting trash talk he’d used online.

That was all the fuel ‘The Notorious One’ needed, and so he flew out to Brooklyn, where the show was taking place, and along with some training partners, attacked a bus carrying Nurmagomedov, some of his team, and various other UFC fighters, eventually throwing a metal dolly through one of the vehicle’s windows.

If things were heated before, they were now off the charts. And of course, despite UFC President Dana White condemning McGregor’s behaviour, the fight was booked for October 2018’s UFC 229, with the Irishman throwing even more fuel onto the fire by mercilessly mocking Khabib’s religion, ethnicity and character.

Of course, everyone knows what happened next – the largely one-sided fight in favour of Nurmagomedov ending with McGregor tapping out to a fourth round neck crank, and the wild brawl afterwards that ended with Khabib leaping into the crowd to attack McGregor’s training partners while ‘The Notorious One’ exchanged blows inside the Octagon with members of Khabib’s team.

As of the time of writing, a rematch between the two seems unlikely, but with a feud this heated, the UFC will likely book it in the future if they can justify it. Regardless, the two men certainly don’t look like they’ll bury the hatchet any time soon.