Search icon

MMA

07th Oct 2018

The man who jumped Conor McGregor brags about his sucker-punch

He's proud of the attack

Darragh Murphy

There’s not a lot of remorse from the Nurmagomedov camp.

Khabib Nurmagomedov apologised to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his role in the brawl which marred the main event of UFC 229 on Saturday night but he didn’t have any apology for Conor McGregor.

After forcing McGregor to tap out to a neck crank in the fourth round of the lightweight title fight, Nurmagomedov jumped out of the Octagon to confront the Irishman’s Jiu-Jitsu coach, Dillon Danis.

A full-on melee followed as members of Nurmagomedov’s team rushed the cage to attack McGregor, with one individual sucker-punching ‘The Notorious’ from behind.

That person is believed to be Zubaira Tukhugov, a UFC featherweight who clearly took umbrage with McGregor’s pre-fight trash talk.

At the time of the attack, Tukhugov was scheduled to fight McGregor’s training partner Artem Lobov at UFC Moncton at the end of the month but that bout is unlikely to take place.

UFC President Dana White insists that the people who attacked McGregor would never fight in the UFC again and that means that Lobov will not have the chance to attempt to exact revenge on Tukhugov in Canada.

It doesn’t sound like Tukhugov regrets the actions which cost him his job as he took to social media to brag about his role in the brawl.

“I slapped him as promised,” Tukhugov said. “I promised to make him answer for his words and I did.”