Conor McGregor got destroyed by Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.
Instead of accepting it and moving on, McGregor has spent the last eight years finding new and creative ways to account for the loss. He even went so far as to celebrate the death of Khabib’s father, probably because he can’t handle “the eternal shame of losing.”
I guess he does feel something after all.
“The guy done nothing in the sport,” McGregor told Complex. “13 fights he’s had in the company, that’s it and three against named opponents.
He had a fight against me, I was off the yacht. I was doing bad things on the yacht. I was partying heavily, and I was up to my eyeballs in court cases and all of this. I hadn’t fought in two years. I was worth $200 million and I come back and fight this f*cking guy. I done four rounds with him. I had a broken toe. I’m sure you seen the Netflix show where I broke my f*cking foot three weeks before the bout. This guy’s nothing.”
That’s no excuse — Jon Jones dominated a prime Daniel Cormier “after a weekend of cocaine” and Nate Diaz submitted McGregor on 11 days notice after shooting tequila on a yacht in Cabo. In addition, Alex Pereira knocked out Jamahal Hill with a broken toe.
Maybe he should have spent more time training and less time tweeting.
“[Khabib] never fought, missed weight, never fought above weight divisions,” McGregor added. “Three fights, no stoppages, no knockouts. Come on, how many more knockouts has he got, three or four? You must be mad. His first half of his work was fighting in his father’s shows in the middle of nowhere, wherever they’re from. He’s like 12-0, the opponent he’s fighting is 0-0. This isn’t boxing. I don’t rate him.”
Nurmagomedov retired in late 2020 with a perfect record of 29-0.
I guess this is a good time to mention that McGregor’s first five opponents on the regional circuit all have losing records — and one of them still submitted “Notorious” by way of kneebar just 69 seconds into the opening frame. That said, every champion has to start somewhere, McGregor included.
Hopefully McGregor can focus more on Max Holloway and less on Khabib considering he’s facing five rounds of action against the Hawaiian at UFC 329 on Sat. night (July 11, 2026) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. I’m sure a loss to “Blessed” will be blamed on the layoff, his broken leg, and those pesky court cases.
To see who else is fighting at UFC 329 on Paramount+ click here.
