Khabib Nurmagomedov was one of UFC’s coldest, most calculating fighters whenever he competed, but the buildup to his showdown against Conor McGregor had him ready for blood.
The intense rivalry between the lightweights culminated at UFC 229 in 2018 when Nurmagomedov dominated the fight before submitting McGregor in the fourth round. Even leading up to the event, Nurmagomedov was seething with anger and just waiting for the chance to get his hands on McGregor after months of ugly trash talk that included insults aimed at Nurmagomedov and his family.
It turns out, Khabib Nurmagomedov even had a message for UFC CEO Dana White just before the action started.
“It was like we just signed the contract, and it was like I prayed to God, just close the cage and me and him be alone,” Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed on the Inspire Me podcast. “This is what I really, really wanted at this time. Because you never know, someone can get injured, something can happen. You never know. I was preparing for this fight and I was waiting for this moment. I was very happy.
“I remember when I come inside the cage, when the cage closed, I remember I looked at Dana [White] and I said, ‘Today, you cannot protect him.’ Dana asked me what? I said, ‘Today, you cannot protect him.’ He didn’t hear me. It’s OK, after the fight [we’ll] talk.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov ultimately made his dream come true. He nearly scored a knockout against McGregor on the feet before eventually locking in the fight-ending submission in the fourth round. McGregor famously told Nurmagomedov mid-fight that the lead-up was just business, but Nurmagomedov obviously felt it was much more personal.
In fact, Nurmagomedov barely had time to celebrate before leaping out of the cage to go after McGregor’s coaches and teammates, who also were involved in the trash talk leading up to UFC 229. A brawl erupted in Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, with security and police swarming the scene to break up the melee before things ended up spilling into the crowd.
Looking back now, Khabib Nurmagomedov says he just had some unfinished business he had to settle when choking out McGregor just didn’t seem like enough.
“It was a very emotional time, but at the same time, it was my feeling — I really wanted to bite someone’s heart,” Nurmagomedov said. “Do you have that feeling in your life? I just tried to bite his heart.
“Maybe you can feel this. I am ‘The Eagle,’ and when the eagle is hungry, it’s not good. He has to hunt. That’s why.”
The post-fight brawl obviously didn’t make White very happy, but Khabib Nurmagomedov felt like UFC had to know the volatile situation was just a powder keg waiting to explode.
UFC used every incident between Nurmagomedov and McGregor to build up the fight, so the undefeated Russian was just following through on the promises he made when it came to his disdain towards the former two-division champion.
“When the promotion promotes this fight, they have to expect something,” Nurmagomedov said. “When they know me, when they know all my team, when they know we don’t play. We compete, we don’t play. You cannot play MMA. You can play soccer. You can play American football, you can play hockey. But you cannot play MMA. You have to fight. This is a fighting game.
“A lot of people said it was a very strange or weird or something like this, but it was my decision.”
Following that fight against McGregor, Khabib Nurmagomedov ultimately fought just twice more before calling it a career in 2020 after promising his mother that he would hang up his gloves for good.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped McGregor from constantly jabbing at Nurmagomedov through interviews or social media as he continuously tries to goad his former opponent into a comeback.
The unfortunate news for McGregor is that his trash talk is apparently falling on deaf ears now, because Nurmagomedov doesn’t pay attention to any of it.
“I feel like what happened in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” Khabib Nurmagomedov joked when addressing his rivalry with McGregor. “I just don’t think about this.
“It was so many moments in my life happened for a reason. It was not my plan. This happened, it happened. I just don’t think about this. A lot of people remind me about this situation, but my mind is different in other ways.”