When Khabib Nurmagomedov revealed why he jumped to attack Dillon Danis after submitting Conor McGregor at UFC 229
Khabib Nurmagomedov jumping into the crowd to attack Dillon Danis is one of the most controversial and iconic moments in UFC history. The build-up to ‘The Eagle’s' UFC 229 grudge match against Conor McGregor was marked by the Irishman’s trash-talking and repeated attempts to get under the skin to break Khabib mentally.
However, the Dagestan native did a great job of containing his emotions until the fight was over and handed McGregor a humiliating fourth-round submission loss. Not content with the ‘W’, Khabib Nurmagomedov shifted his focus to McGregor’s team. A brief verbal exchange followed and ‘The Eagle’ literally flew off the cage in a fit of rage to attack Dillon Danis who was in McGregor’s corner.
The moment is considered a black eye on the sport and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan claimed that Danis was hurling abuses at Nurmagomedov during the fight, which resulted in the entire fiasco.
However, Khabib Nurmagomedov later told Submission Radio that he could not hear Danis amid the deafening crowd. Instead, he attacked Danis because McGregor's other teammates, John Kavanagh and Owen Roddy were too old for ‘The Eagle’ to attack.
“No, I didn’t hear [Dillon Danis], you know. I jump on him because other corner is too old. Because Conor’s other corner, coaches are too old and that’s why I jumped on him. Because he is almost like my age. If I jumped on Kavanagh, I don’t think… it’s too… Kavanagh can’t fight me. That’s why I jumped on [Dillon Danis]. But when I [was fighting McGregor] I didn’t hear him [say anything to me] because it was too loud.”
However, Khabib, at the time of this interview had not forgotten the insulting and outrageous build-up to the fight and admitted that he had no affection towards any of McGregor’s teammates.
“But I don’t like his whole team but if I had a choice, what I’m gonna do, but all other coaches were too old for me. They cannot fight me, you know. They’re almost like my father’s age. That’s why I jumped on [Danis].”
You can watch Khabib Nurmagomedov speak about the incident in the video below:
Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor never squashed the beef
Conor McGregor pursued the Khabib Nurmagomedov rematch for as long as the latter was active in his professional MMA career. Although Khabib dismissed the idea of a Conor McGregor rematch every time it was pitched to him, the beef between the two men was never squashed.
Conor McGregor, who is known for his questionable promotional tactics, did not hesitate to involve the Dagestan native’s family and failed to bring him to the negotiating table. Khabib Nurmagomedov retired from MMA in 2020 as a consequence of his father’s tragic death due to the Coronavirus infection. However, the two men have been going after each other on social media with McGregor recently addressing Khabib’s late father as ‘dead enemy’.