Khabib Nurmagomedov Says Conor McGregor Is ‘Slowing Down’ After UFC 229 Victory

Khabib Nurmagomedov, following his victory over Conor McGregor during UFC 229, wrote on social media that his opponent is “slowing down.”

“Friend, even now you are slowing down, otherwise I’m uncomfortable for you, myself,” he wrote, according to a translation. “I told you, on October 6, I’ll tell you everything, or did you really want to beat me there?”

He added: “I apologize to everyone whom I have offended in our … victory.” He also wrote: “Thank you for your incredible support, I love you, yours truly” to his fans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoqtSDsCoH4/?hl=en&taken-by=khabib_nurmagomedov

Following his victory, Nurmagomedov jumped into the crowd and attacked one of McGregor’s coaches, Dillon Danis, before security and Las Vegas police intervened.

Nurmagomedov issued an apology after the fight 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 UFC 229 post-fight conference, according to a live stream of the event.

“I don’t understand how people can talk about [how] I jump on the cage,” Nurmagomedov added. “He [McGregor] talked about my religion, he talked about my country, he talked about my father. He came to Brooklyn and he broke a bus, he almost killed a couple of people.”

He didn’t answer any questions before he stood up with his championship belt and then left.

White suggested that Nurmagomedov could face sanctioning from the Nevada State Athletic Commission over the incident. If he gets a lengthy suspension, White said the UFC would likely strip him of his championship belt.

During the post-fight brawl, three members of Nurmagomedov’s engaged with McGregor in the octagon. White said they were arrested, but McGregor declined to press charges against them.

“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.”

He added 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.

For his part, McGregor issued two tweets. On Oct. 8, he wrote that “we lost the match but won the battle.”

We lost the match but won the battle.
The war goes on. pic.twitter.com/CRtPaGfOnn

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 8, 2018

On Oct. 7, he also suggested that the two fighters have a rematch.