Reporters: Noah and Jacob Laybolt
UFC 229. October 6th,2018. Set about a year and two months after the monumental Mayweather-McGregor fight. It was a date millions were anticipating. The prologue had been accentuated by the rolling feud between the two camps, culminating in Conor McGregor’s infamous assault on the Khabib bus which had injured three fighters on board after the Irishman tossed a dolly through a window, and blocked the vehicle’s escape with the help of a crew. This almost guaranteed a successful pay-per-view fight for Promoter Dana White. However, a greater symbolic force was presented when McGregor literally put himself on trial after turning himself in to the NYPD in hopes of a reduced sentence, then got released on bail and went on to meet the fight he demanded.
The stage had been set. By early August, the war had been declared, the training camps begun, and the press events arranged. There was more at stake than the Lightweight Championship. The reputation of McGregor as the tragic hero with a recent blemish of juvenility,in juxtaposition with the unscathed, 26-0, fight record of Nurmagomedov supplanted by the Russian fight industry’s alleged links to oligarchs and Khabib’s close support of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov and the now prosecuted, multi-million embezzler,Ziyavudin Magomedov.
The battle between McGregor and Nurmagomedovwas the sort of polarizing and intense sporting event that a viewer would benefit most from watching inside of a crowded sports bar. I saw the fight at a local establishment filled with plasma screens and screaming drunk men from allover the world, smashing their tables with their fists and bellowing angrily every time a strike was landed or a take down was performed. This fight generated a particularly intense atmosphere in the place, as it did in bars across the country, with the showdown’s narrative being deeply rooted in nationalist,east-versus-west connotations. The champion was a Russian, and McGregor is vehemently Irish.
Here in St. Johns, where Irish heritage is particularly deified by the locals, people were loud and emotional. Connor was clearly outmatched from the beginning. Although the skill disparity wasn’t on the level of CM Punk’s recent foray into physical recreation, Khabib dominated early and often. The armchair-athlete notion floating around the internet that Khabib would be outmatched as a striker was squashed as he appeared competent on his feet in the early moments of the fight, going on to land a devastating punch to Connor partway through the bout that resembled,abstractly, a train hitting an unarmed pedestrian. Connor lost. A lot has been written about the immediate aftermath of the fight – Khabib leaped into the crowd to fight members of Connor’s coaching team and Connor was attacked inside of the octagon by teammates of Khabib.
The ensuing brawl has resulted in a 10-day suspension for both athletes, effective October 15th and a withholding of Khabib’s purse. If anything is for certain, it’s that McGregor’s legacy as an all-powerful god figure in the world of combat athletics is tarnished (or dead). The inevitable rematch between the two men will decide the permanence of this notion.