Khabib Nurmagomedov left the conference due to McGregor's tardiness

Khabib Nurmagomedov showed on Thursday that he will not stand the whims of Conor McGregor, with whom he will fight this Saturday in the UFC 229 main event, to be held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

While the last pre- UFC 229 press conference was taking place, the Russian was irritated that Conor McGregor took too long to appear on the scene.
For this reason, Khabib Nurmagomedov decided to leave the press conference, leaving only Dana White, president of the UFC, on the stand. "Tomorrow I have to give the weight," said the Russian champion before retiring.

The rivalry will never end

A few minutes later, Conor McGregor made his appearance to answer all the questions. And he assured that his rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov is far from reaching its end. "It will never end," said the Irishman.

"Thank you very much, everyone, I see them on Saturday night," said Conor McGregor, who will try to snatch Khabib Nurmagomedov the title he won in November 2016, after knocking out Eddie Alvarez.

"It will never end," says Conor about his rivalry with Khabib

Khabib Nurmagomedov, the anti-Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor, the superstar of mixed martial arts (MMA), will return to the MMA after two years without a fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). In front of him, the Irishman will find Khabib Nurmagomedov become champion of lightweights. The 30-year-old Russian is still little known to the general public, despite his 26 wins in as many games.

On October 6, 2018, Khabib Nurmagomedov brings his lightweight championship belt into play at the prestigious Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the prestigious mixed martial arts (MMA) league. But everything in the staging of this highly anticipated fight gives the impression that the Russian is the challenger and not the title holder.

And for good reason: he who was born in Dagestan, a republic of Southwest Russia, will face the superstar of MMA, Conor McGregor, in Las Vegas. The Irishman has certainly not taken part in a fight for the UFC since November 2016. But the one who boxed against the American Floyd Mayweather in August 2017 remains an almost untouchable icon.

A practicing Muslim and relatively discreet

As evidence, Conor McGregor is back in full light as he tried to assault Khabib Nurmagomedov before a game against Al Iaquinta for the belt on April 7, 2018, in Brooklyn. The so-called "The Notorious" had indeed invited, with acolytes, to a press conference. He had notably thrown a barrier against the window of a bus where the Russian was. Condemned to five days of community service, Conor McGregor never ceased to assure his opponent that if he had got off the vehicle, he would be dead.

Conor McGregor faces Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of UFC 229. The lightweight belt of the organization is at stake. The beauty of MMA is that its evolution remains resolutely unpredictable. If I had been told a few years ago that the UFC lightweight title would be played between a limited ground striker and a grappler at the rudimentary stand-up, I probably would have laughed at the incongruity of such a prediction.

Yet here we are on the eve of what promises to be the biggest fight in UFC history, and once again it is a variation of the traditional opposition "percussion against prehension". However, the sport has evolved, and today we are far from the meetings of the type "Royce Gracie / Gerard Gordeau or Bas Rutten / Kévin Randleman". Thus, it would be wrong to reduce Conor or Khabib to monomaniac specialists of their respective control (boxing for one, the fight for the other). Indeed, Conor and Khabib know the game as a whole and, as a result, learned to impose their domain on their opponents while minimizing the occurrences where they could express theirs. It is for this reason that the collision of these two forces is truly enriching for the sport, despite a pattern of opposition.a prior already seen. 

Insulted, mocked, provoked by Conor McGregor during a press conference, Khabib Nurmagomedov has consistently demonstrated that he is the complete opposite of his whimsical rival. Dressed in a simple black top, this practicing Muslim, who wears neither jewelry nor tattoos, tried to stay much quieter and a little more measured, offending the glass of whiskey that his predecessor handed him. He concluded that their differences would be settled only on October 6 in the octagon and not on a platform.

A recognition deficit

Khabib Nurmagomedov seems paradoxical to have more to gain than to lose with this confrontation. His 26 wins in as many martial arts contests are at best relativized. " We exaggerate with this 26-0, exclaims Fernand Lopez, the coach of MMA the most famous of France. If you take the last five fights of "Nurma", there are barely two guys in the Top 5 [UFC, Editor's note]. I do not say that he has faced anyone, but he has faced easy opponents, almost gifts (sic).

From there to think that the pugilist of 30 years is an impostor, there is, however, a step that Fernand Lopez certainly will not cross, even if he finds that the person is perfectible in its timing. " If there is anyone who can put Conor in trouble, it's Khabib. He is very solid, says the Franco-Cameroonian. In two areas that are endurance and the ability to lead a fight, he excels and is a very good ground strategist.

As a child, he fought against a cub

These qualities, Makhachkala's "Eagle" tweaked them during his childhood, raised to the rough by a father martial arts coach. When he was nine, his father had placed him in front of .... a teddy bear. And the kid had not dismounted.

Free wrestling, judo, sambo: Khabib Nurmagomedov later mixed several techniques that allowed him to reach the MMA highs. This style, if not the most spectacular, seems terribly effective.