The chaos that erupted after Khabib Nurmagomedov beat Conor McGregor by submission in Las Vegas resulted in the Dagestan fighter not receiving his belt in the octagon.
As soon as Nurmagomedov applied a rear naked choke hold that forced McGregor to tap out after three minutes and three seconds in the fourth round, he sprinted across to the Irishman’s corner for insulting him before the fight.
Then members of his entourage jumped into the octagon and threw punches at McGregor, and the brawl continued outside amongst the spectators, most of him had backed McGregor.
With all that happening, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) boss Dana White decided that it was too dangerous to present Nurmagomedov with his belt, telling the Russian: “If I put this belt on you, everybody is going to throw s**t into the octagon.”
Finally on Wednesday, Nurmagomedov posted a picture of himself with his belt on Instagram, with the words: “@danawhite you lucky that you give my belt, or I would smash your car, I know your parking location #SendmeLocaition”
Nurmagomedov received a hero’s welcome in his native Dagestan, which is a federal subject of Russia, this week, although he was set to get a serious rebuke from his father Abdulmanap for his role in the post-fight brawl.
“You can do whatever you want in the octagon; outside of it, there’s children, women, random people,” Abdulmanap – who is still his son’s trainer, but was denied a visa by US authorities to attend the McGregor fight – was reported as saying.
“My team has always been known for its discipline. Hence, my sanctions to Khabib will be much stronger than the ones from UFC.”
Nurmagomedov is still awaiting his $2 million purse, though, which has been withheld as an investigation is ongoing into the brawl.
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A post shared by Khabib Nurmagomedov(@khabib_nurmagomedov) on Oct 9, 2018 at 1:02pm PDT
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