UFC 229 kommer nog tyvärr komma ihågs för vad som hände efter sista matchen, istället för de fina insatser som skedde på kortet från både Tony Ferguson och Khabib Nurmagomedov. Daniel Cormier satt cage-side under UFC 229 när slagsmålet startade mellan Khabib Nurmagomedovs team, Conor McGregor och irländarna. UFCs nuvarande tungviktsmästare var på väg att själv blanda sig i slagsmålet, men tänkte en extra gång och bestämde sig istället för att försöka lugna sin träningskamrat. Så här sa Cormier till en reporter som senare översatts av MMAJunkie.
“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, what am I thinking?’”
”(Khabib is) going crazy,”
“It was the funniest (expletive) I’ve ever seen. I’ll admit this. For me, it sucks that it was in front of all these people, but it was a whole bunch of dudes just kind of fighting and acting crazy. It was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ It’s like every city in every country every Saturday in some street bar – or a club – this is going on. It just happened between a whole bunch of Russian guys and a bunch of Irish guys in front of millions of people. So for me, I had the separate the idea that I was laughing to going, ‘Guys, we are probably in front of the biggest viewership we’ve ever had.’”
”DC” lyckades komma inom en armlängds avstånd från sin träningskamrat som var fasthållen av säkerhetsvakter.
“(UFC security guards) have Khabib,”
“He sees me (and says), ‘This is my captain. Let him talk to me.’ I said, ‘Yo.’ He goes, ‘What?’ I go, ‘What the (expletive) is going on? What are you doing?’
“He goes, ‘I want my belt.’ I go, ‘OK, OK, just relax.’ He goes, ‘Just give me my belt.’ So I go, ‘Guys, let’s just take him back in the cage, we’ll get his belt, and we’ll get out of here.’”
När de lyckats ta sig från arenan och in i backstage frågade Cormier vad som var hela målet med Khabibs beteende.
“So what was the desired outcome there?”
Did you want to step on his head? Like, what did you want to do? What, in your mind, were you wanting to accomplish? Were you going to drop kick him? Were you going to double-kick him? What were you doing?”
Enligt Cormier hade Khabib svarat.
“Brother, I don’t know. I lose my mind.”
