Conor McGregor on Khabib Nurmagomedov Loss: ‘Lost the Match but Won the Battle’

Following his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov on Oct. 6, former UFC lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor tweeted a photo of himself on the morning of Oct. 8.

“We lost the match but won the battle,” he tweeted, showing a photo of his bruised eye. “The war goes on.”

It comes a day after he wrote: “Good knock. Looking forward to the rematch.”

Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor via submission in the fourth round of UFC 229 before the Russian fighter climbed out of the ring and attacked a member of McGregor’s team on live television. This sparked a brawl inside and outside the octagon, which involved members of Nurmagomedov’s team.

“Nobody saw Khabib diving over there. You know he scaled that thing like he was a parkour guy. It happened so fast. The police did what they could do and the security did a great job of containing it,” UFC president Dana White said in a post-fight media conference.

He said the Nevada State Athletic Commission “is going to hand down some type of fine or suspension” for Nurmagomedov’s post-fight antics. “We’ll see. I don’t know. If he gets suspended, it depends how long it is but yeah he will probably get stripped if it’s a long suspension,” he added.

McGregor was attacked in the cage by three of Nurmagomedov’s associates after the fight.

The three men who were part of Nurmagomedov’s team were arrested. McGregor declined to press charges.

“The guys who jumped in will never fight here,” said White in the conference. “They’ll never fight here. I’ve been working hard for 18 years to build this sport. When you have such an amazing event that we’ve worked hard to build over the last several months and it goes perfect, I mean literally it was too eerie. I kept saying this is too crazy man. Everybody made weight, everything was so smooth. Security took all the right precautions. Those of you that have been to many events, you’ve never seen this many metro police officers in the building. Security was unbelievable.”

Conor McGregor during UFC 229 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, on Oct. 6, 2018. Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports

Rematch?

Nurmagomedov issued an apology but remained defiant.

“First of all, I want to say sorry to Nevada Athletic Commission and second to Vegas. I know this is not my best side. I’m a human being. But I don’t understand how people can talk about how I jump on the cage. He talked about my religion, he talked about my country, he talked about my father,” he said in the post-fight conference, without answering any questions before leaving.

“This is a respectful sport, not a trash-talking sport,” said the Russian fighter. “I want to change the game, you cannot talk about religion, about nationality.”