Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 229 saw the biggest defeat in Conor McGregor's MMA career as the unbeaten sambo-style fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov fulfilled his promise to smash 'Notorious' at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
In the first minute of the fight, the battle was dragged to the ground, just as "The Eagle" likes to do. Even though McGregor did pretty well at resisting the smothering offence of Nurmagomedov, and weathering his surprisingly good boxing in Round 2, he finally got over powered and tapped out to a neck crank at 3:03 of Round 4.
Referee Herb Dean separates Khabib Nurmagomedov of Russia from Conor McGregor of Ireland after McGregor tapped out in their UFC lightweight championship bout during the UFC 229 event inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 6, 2018. /VCG Photo
After defeating the rival and remaining the UFC Lightweight Champion, Khabib jumped out of the cage and attacked McGregor's jiu jitsu coach Dillion Danis, causing a mass brawl between the Irish and Russian camps. Police and security quickly got everything under control but, once Conor had been escorted to safety, UFC President Dana White refused to award the belt to Nurmagomedov as he felt that would provoke further violence from the riled up crowd. For the first time ever, the official result of the bout was announced by Bruce Buffer to a mostly empty Octagon, without either competitor in sight
Earlier in the show, Michelle 'The Karate Hottie' Waterson defeated Felice Herrig by unanimous decision in a women's strawweight bout; heavyweight Derrick Lewis bagged an epic win against Alexander Volkov via TKO in the last 15 seconds after being on the losing side of the whole three-round match.
Dominick 'The Devastator' Reyes dramatically knocked out 'OSP' Ovince Saint Preux right at the bell but awarded a decision victory instead, continuing his unbeaten run in the UFC's light heavyweight division.
And in the co-main event, Tony "El Cucuy" Ferguson turned The Octagon red by severely cutting Anthony "Showtime" Pettis with left and right elbow strikes. The fight ended due to a doctor stoppage for Pettis' broken hand but it was clear that he was outmatched by El Cucuy from the start.