#1 UFC 229 – Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Conor McGregor
Okay, so I’ll preface this by saying that the actual fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor – arguably the biggest UFC fight of all time with the UFC Lightweight title on the line – totally lived up to the hype, even though it was a little one-sided in favor of Nurmagomedov. But in terms of the ending to a UFC show, UFC 229 was by far the one that left the worst taste in the mouth.
After a huge win like this one, everyone should’ve been talking about whether Khabib was the best Lightweight of all time, or in the least, how McGregor would ever be able to rebound from taking such a one-sided beating. But instead, everyone was only focused on one thing: the ugly and controversial aftermath.
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Everyone knows what happened at this stage; Khabib looked angry even after McGregor had tapped out, yelling at the Irishman before scaling the Octagon fence. Next, he leaped into the crowd to attack McGregor’s training partner Dillon Danis, before Khabib’s teammates entered the cage to confront McGregor, who began to exchange punches with both Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Zubaira Tukhugov.
In the end, cooler heads managed to prevail as the whole scene was flooded with security and Daniel Cormier – a training partner of Khabib’ – even got involved to attempt to calm ‘The Eagle’ down. The crowd in attendance was so horrified and disgusted at the entire scene that UFC President Dana White simply ushered everyone from the Octagon, meaning Khabib wasn’t even presented with his title belt.
Not only did the ending have far-reaching consequences – everyone involved, from Khabib and McGregor to Danis and Tukhugov were slapped with various fines and suspensions – but it also harkened back to an uglier time for MMA, and left a firm black eye on the sport. Despite the fight that preceded it being a great one, this was definitely the worst ending to a UFC show in the promotion’s history.