UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may have made UFC 229 the most memorable event in MMA history with his actions that incited a huge post-fight brawl.
Firas Zahabi has been a coach to many of the sports greatest fighters and he claims Conor McGregor got away with plenty of misdeeds during the bout against Nurmagomedov.
“I know Herb Dean. He’s a great referee. The man’s a professional fighter as well, he knows what’s going on in there. He understands jiujitsu, he understands striking. But McGregor got away with so many fouls,” Zahabi said on his official Youtube page. “To the point that Khabib — he left his corner between round three and four to tell the ref ‘hey, why are you letting him get away with all these things?’ First of, the worst foul: he kneed Khabib illegally from the bottom. Khabib was in side control and McGregor knees Khabib in the head from bottom side control. He should’ve gotten a stern warning, or maybe even a point (deduction). McGregor was holding the fence on the last takedown. When Khabib pulled to take his McGregor’s back, he was blatantly holding on to the fence. That was probably his seventh or eight foul that night. Before that, he had held the shorts. He had grabbed on to Khabib’s shorts as Khabib was trying to take him down. He has put his toes on the fence after being told not to. He was obviously grabbing Khabib’s gloves... maybe two or three times. Khabib was talking to the referee saying ‘he is holding my gloves.’”
There were no points deducted for either fighter during the bout, which Nurmagomedov won via fourth round submission.
Zahabi knows that McGregor is usually a clean fight, which is why he is confused by the Irishman’s actions inside of the Octagon.
“Why would McGregor do this? He doesn’t seem to do this in his other fights,” he said. “That’s a question for him, but I think he might have been fighting for his life. He might have felt ‘look, I am being overwhelmed here, I need every single ounce of help I can get.’ He might have been in a panic mode, and I think I could understand. Being so smashed against somebody so heavy, so based, and you feel you can’t move him — you start to get desperate. You’ve never felt anything like that, a pressure like that. You might panic a little. I assume he was getting desperate. He probably felt like he was suffocating in there. Khabib’s top game reminds me a lot of Georges (St-Pierre)’s game. I’ve felt this and know what it is. If you don’t have a good answer for that, it’s a very devastating position to be in.”
While neither fighter is expected to be punished for their actions during the fight, both could be facing repercussions for the post-fight madness.
