Khabib Nurmagomedov couldn’t sit still as he watched Eddie Alvarez fail on several attempted takedowns in Madison Square Garden on 12 November 2016.
Sitting to the right of the press area, 'The Eagle' watched his potential prey with a couple of members of his team, shaking his head as Conor McGregor continually evaded Alvarez’s wrestling entries.
Just two months before the UFC’s New York debut, Dana White suggested it would be Khabib Nurmagomedov that would face Alvarez for the lightweight title that night. The Russian’s name was probably used as bait to get Alvarez and McGregor to come to terms for the historic event, but he was far from unhappy after the Irishman’s win. He probably concluded that 'The Notorious' brought a far bigger platform than any other fighter on the UFC’s roster.
"Next fight, next fight," he told me, pointing to the Octagon when I asked him when he was going to challenge McGregor, as the Dubliner held two titles aloft sitting astride the Octagon.
Even McGregor himself sees his lightweight title clash with Nurmagomedov as his first real fight in nearly two years, dismissing his polarising pugilistic contest with Floyd Mayweather as a sideshow.
"I went to a circus; I fought in a circus for the last one," McGregor told The Mac Life ahead of UFC 229. "It was like a Comedy Roast special."
Had he booked a date with Nurmagomedov a few months after his win over Alvarez, you would assume that the betting lines would be heavily tipped in his favour. However, it’s the two-year absence of McGregor that has most people edging towards the Dagestan wrestling machine.
The Irish, in general, have never been able to see past McGregor’s outlandish behaviour to truly acknowledge his skill set
The Irish, in general, have never been able to see past McGregor’s outlandish behaviour to truly acknowledge his skill set. He made history when he dispatched Alvarez in his last MMA offering by becoming the first fighter in the UFC’s history to hold two divisional belts simultaneously with a truly spellbinding performance.
He is arguably the most devastating knockout artist in the history of the promotion’s lighter weight classes. Yet, the only fighter who has ever taken 23 months or more away from MMA and returned to dethrone a UFC champion is Georges St-Pierre — generally considered the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
As highlighted in a recent RTE feature, over the last 12 months, we’ve seen several moments where McGregor looks far from the philosophical student of the game that first emerged on the scene. You can add the launch of his new whiskey venture just weeks out from his return bout, to the distractions from his preparation.
Due to the silence from the McGregor camp ahead of his return bout, it’s impossible to know how much of a factor ring rust is for the Dubliner. One thing we do know is, providing all things go smoothly ahead of Saturday, he will be facing a man his head coach, John Kavanagh, has referred to as 'the bogeyman' of the lightweight division.
Having his hand raised against Nurmagomedov would be among the greatest achievements of McGregor’s career given his time away from MMA. At UFC 229, he has much more than the proximity of his last bout to take into account as he prepares to face the Russian — a man who has never officially lost a round in his six-year UFC tenure.
If another person summarises that, "the fight is over if it hits the ground", I’m going to pull my hair out.
Yes, Nurmagomedov is a supremely strong grappler, but he has only finished four of his 10 opponents in the Octagon. That being said, conceding a takedown to 'The Eagle' has resulted in some of the most uncomfortable positions his opponents have ever been in. Having him on top of you is like creeping death, his top pressure is soul destroying.
You only have to look at the face of Edson Barboza — the third-ranked lightweight on the UFC’s books at the time of their meeting — as he feasted on a banquet of the Russian’s ground and pound to realise just how horrific being on the end of his onslaughts are. He is capable of completely sapping his counterpart’s gas tank within a round of establishing top position, which makes a return bout against him even more dangerous.
One of the most dominant performances we've ever seen@TeamKhabib destroys Barboza to earn his first title shot 👀 #UFC229 pic.twitter.com/gdg3GDp6gJ
— UFC (@ufc) August 17, 2018
According to Myles Price, a former SBG fighter who has helped him prepare for the fight, his pressure has to be experienced to be believed:
"When people commentate on his fights, it’s [very accurate] when they say it’s a shock when you feel what he feels like at first. I imagined what it was going to be like, but that was a whole other level of pressure. It’s calculated, it’s smart, it’s vigorous — it just keeps on coming at you over and over again," Price told MMA Fighting.
Nurmagomedov’s refined grappling ability has led many analysts to believe he is the nightmare opponent for McGregor ever since he committed himself to the lightweight ranks. However, equal amounts of people see the Irishman as a perfect foil for Nurmagomedov.
Another moment that has been isolated ad nauseum ahead of the UFC 229 main event is Michael Johnson landing a clean left hand on Nurmagomedov at UFC 205 — the same event in which McGregor was crowned lightweight champion. What people fail to acknowledge is the AKA fighter’s reaction to the stunning shot: 30 seconds later he brought the quick-handed Johnson to the deck and smashed his elbow into his face.
The fact that both fighters’ strength areas are in the other’s perceived weak areas makes the chances of an emphatic result, one way or the other, quite conceivable. But before anyone gets too excited about what will unfold in the Octagon on Saturday, we must contemplate a late Nurmagomedov withdrawal due to the Russian pulling out of four contests during his tenure with the promotion.
Earlier, we mentioned that the two-year gap between UFC 229 and McGregor’s last outing could be a hindrance to the Irishman, but the timing of the bout could also be considered a quick turnaround for Nurmagomedov due to his history with injuries.
At one stage, Nurmagomedov spent two years on the sidelines due to a niggling knee injury, and later, a rib injury. His first defence of his lightweight title on Saturday will nearly equal the most active period of his UFC career to date, a trio of wins over nine months that began with his first UFC striking stoppage— a first-round knockout win over Thiago Tavares.
It feels like the 6 October date was confirmed at the last minute, with many believing that the lightweight title bout would instead take place on UFC’s end of year show. The Dubliner may have settled the earlier date at the 11th hour to give Nurmagomedov less time to recover, or even worse, to give him less time to make championship weight.
Nurmagomedov told journalist Ariel Helwani that he weighed 166 pounds on Monday, but it’s difficult to take the Russian hitting the 155-pound mark as a given.
Most recently, the Russian was forced from the biggest fight of his career up to that point against top-ranked lightweight, Tony Ferguson, due to weight cutting complications. The first time he failed to make the lightweight limit was in 2013 against Abel Trujillo when he came in 2.5 pounds over the divisional requirements at 158.5 pounds.
We can only fully embrace the excitement of this stellar championship clash if Nurmagomedov and McGregor hit the scales at 155 pounds on Friday morning in Las Vegas, Nevada.
While Nurmagomedov is far more than "the lad that was on the bus" McGregor attacked in Brooklyn last April, it’s impossible to look at his fight without taking the incident into consideration.
The attack was central to McGregor’s aggressive prose during the first press conference for the event at the end of September. He probed at the Russian’s choice to stay on the bus instead of meeting him outside, he poked at Chechen/Dagestan relations, he targeted Nurmagomedov’s father and labelled his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, a "terrorist".
Although some will disagree, the pre-fight antics of McGregor appeared to have major effects on Dustin Poirier and Jose Aldo ahead of their meetings with him. Javier Mendez, one of the most respected coaches in the game, who heads Nurmagomedov’s AKA stronghold, was sure to warn his student about McGregor’s advances before the press conference. It was imperative for Mendez that Nurmagomedov did not rise to McGregor’s jibes, which he managed to do, sitting silently as his opponent launched tirades in his direction.
He may have kept his cool at the media event itself, but we only have to look at Eddie Alvarez’s approach to UFC 205 to see an athlete negotiate McGregor’s pre-fight amble before falling apart in the Octagon.
A massive psychological advantage McGregor has in the contest is his experience on the biggest stages in the world. He has played a starring role in the biggest fights in UFC history and in one of the highest grossing boxing bouts of all time. Given McGregor’s super stardom, this will likely be the most hostile environment that Nurmagomedov has ever competed in, which could prove to be the decisive mental stumbling block he must avoid.
Two years on from McGregor’s Madison Square Garden victory over Alvarez, it’s now Khabib Nurmagomedov who holds the UFC lightweight title, but McGregor is without a doubt the biggest foe he has been matched with to date.
McGregor’s resume, sporting names like Jose Aldo, Max Holloway and Eddie Alvarez, is far more impressive that Nurmagomedov’s. But while McGregor has been on a hiatus from MMA, the Russian has fought two more times and established himself at the top of the lightweight standings.
A win for Nurmagomedov will result in a gargantuan pop for the Dagestani, but it is highly unlikely that a win will see him trump the Dubliner’s profile and drawing power.
The victor will inevitably pursue the most lucrative matchup that is available to them. If it’s Nurmagomedov’s hand that is raised, it’s hard to fathom a bigger payday than a rematch with McGregor, who has already underlined that the hostilities between the two will continue regardless of the outcome at T-Mobile Arena.
Follow Conor McGregor v Khabib Nurgamedov via our live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News Now app.
