Glimpse of old Khabib Nurmagomedov shines through over controversial scoring at UFC 302: "Send me this guy's name and location"
Khabib Nurmagomedov was not happy with the scoring of Islam Makhachev's fight against Dustin Poirier, prompting his berserker side of old to re-emerge.
'The Eagle' was speaking with Daniel Cormier, following his protege's win at UFC 302, when the former two-division champion informed him that one of the judges had scored the fight two rounds a piece before Makhachev finished 'The Diamond' in the fifth via a D'Arce choke.
Unconvinced by the scorecard, the former lightweight champion argued that the scorings were all over the place at the pay-per-view, pointing at the controversial split decision between Sean Strickland and Paulo Costa as evidence.
For context, after a dominant showing against 'Borrachinha', two judges scored the fight in Strickland's favor, while the dissenting judge Dave Tirelli produced a lopsided scorecard of 49-46 in Costa's favor. The scorecard invited a slew of criticism, with UFC CEO Dana White even calling for the judge to be banned from future events.
Seeing that 'DC' also didn't agree with Tirelli's scoring, 'The Eagle' took aim at the MMA judge with one of his iconic threats from his fighting days:
"Send me this guy's name and location."
Catch Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments below:
But to be fair, the judge who scored two rounds for 'The Diamond' was not Tirelli, but Chris Lee. He gave the second and the fourth round to the challenger from Louisiana.
A proud Khabib Nurmagomedov heaps praise on Islam Makhachev
Khabib Nurmagomedov was bustling with joy and content following his long-time friend and protege Islam Makhachev's win at UFC 302.
Poirier was perhaps one of Makhachev's toughest tests to date. 'The Diamond' managed to stuff most of the Dagestani's takedown attempts during the fight, forcing the champion to stand and trade with him much more than he would've fancied.
However, the lightweight kingpin's wrestling superiority was on full display in the final round as he employed a slick ankle pic to change levels before forcing a tap out of Poirier with a D'Arce choke.
Speaking to the UFC during a backstage interview a proud Nurmagomedov heaped praise on his friend:
"Today Islam grew a lot. You don't even understand. When you go deep like today... you understand your body and how deep you can go, even more. There is more place to [go deep to]... All the time people underestimate themselves. Our body, our soul, we can go deeper than like five rounds or 10 rounds, doesn't matter."
Catch Khabib Nurmagomedov's comments below: