Former UFC lightweight champions, Khabib Nuramgomedov and Conor McGregor shared a very dark rivalry in the past. While the two clans were cordial with each other, an incident involving Artem Lobov in 2018 changed all of that. Khabib confronted Artem backstage at a UFC event and allegedly put his hands on the Russian fighter. It triggered Conor, who flew into New York with revenge on his mind.
It resulted in the infamous incident of him throwing a dolly at Khabib’s bus. The incident ultimately led to their fight at UFC 229, where Khabib rag-dolled the Irish fighter and became a huge star. After the fight, Khabib jumped the Octagon and targeted Conor’s Jiu-Jitsu partner Dillon Danis. Although the two teams were separated at last, Khabib and Conor never really resolved their issues.
UFC President, Dana White, later revealed that the lead-up to UFC 229 was the darkest few weeks of his career. During the press conferences for the event, Conor attacked Khabib on a very personal level. The Notorious One brought up Nurmagomedov’s background, his manager Ali Abdelaziz’s past, and even his faith. Despite all that, Khabib’s father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov chose to pardon Conor.
In recent days and months, a lot of Abdulmanap’s old interviews have resurfaced. From calling Jon Jones the GOAT to predicting Islam to be the future of the lightweight division, fans were treated to some of Abdul’s rarest of clips. In one such clip, Nurmagomedov spoke about his son’s rivalry with Conor McGregor and spoke about even forgiving him.
Before his unfortunate passing, Abdulmanap added, “Today I invited Conor to our home. He could visit Dagestan, why not? Yes (I really forgave him).” He continued, “It’s all in the past. We should not stop there, life goes on. If he comes, you will see that. He will be our dearest guest.” Speaking about Khabib’s feelings on the matter, he said, “He never stands against that.”
Conor McGregor made some shocking comments on the passing of Khabib’s father
Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov have continued their rivalry despite not fighting each other since 2018. While Conor plans to make another high-profile return to the Octagon after a horrific leg injury at UFC 264, Khabib has been retired for about 3 years now. His last bout was against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and Khabib walked away from the sport with a perfect 29-0 record.
However, there was a key reason behind Khabib’s retirement and it was the untimely passing of his father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. On July 3, 2020, Abdulmanap passed away after a long battle with Covid-19. He was Khabib’s head coach and inspiration as a fighter. Hence, after his death, Nurmagomedov promised his mother that he will not fight after defending his belt against Gaethje.
But immediately after Abdulmanap’s passing, Conor offered his condolences to Khabib. However, he later deleted the tweet, which had 173K likes. Instead, he chose to mock the tragedy and made some comments which can be perceived as very disrespectful. After Dustin’s win over Conor in 2021, Khabib tweeted that “Good always defeats evil.” In response, Conor wrote, “Covid is good and father is evil?” Conor deleted the post afterward.
Here’s Conor McGregor continuing to disrespect Khabib’s father, who died last year due to complications fighting covid. Dude stays talking about family then getting his ass beat. pic.twitter.com/OjncBBDSRm
— Ernie (@es3_09) July 27, 2021
Although Khabib’s father may have forgiven Conor, there remains a lot of bad blood between Conor and Khabib’s team. Even recently, the 34-year-old had a back-and-forth with Khabib’s manager. Judging by how things are, it does not look like the rivalry will ever be squashed.
