Conor McGregor to Khabib Nurmagomedov: “If you got off that bus, you’d be dead”
Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seat belts because UFC 229 season is now officially upon after last night’s epic UFC 229 press conference between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov from the world famous Radio City in New York.
This was the first time two had been physically around one another since the infamous bus altercation at UFC 223 fight week.
Of course once the presser began, McGregor wasted little time, as he was back to his usual self in firing the first barrage of verbal shots at the UFC lightweight champion.
McGregor said that putting a bad beating on Nurmagomedov after what occurred in Brooklyn, was a motivating factor for him returning to the octagon after a two year absence.
“I came back for the love of this, to come and shut this man up…a little rat…a little weasel…a little hard man in groups,” McGregor told the gathered media
“I’ve met many of them through my years — a man who grows in numbers, but when is on his own and is confronted with a similar situation, he cowers away. And that’s what you saw [in Brooklyn] with that little shite in the bus over there.
“He shit his jocks after doing something to his countryman that had got nothing to do with anything — that’s it. I came back for the love of fighting and the love of war. And this: I’m going to truly, truly love putting a bad beating on this little glass-jaw rat.”
McGregor continued his verbal tirade on Nurmagomedov by calling him a fanboy, recalling back to when the two had issued kind words towards each back in their early years in the UFC.
The Irishmen claimed Nurmagomedov showed him his hands prior to the April bus attack, saying him choosing to cower off provoked his ballistic reaction.
“I’m right in front of you! Did you not see me outside the bus, no? Did you not see me standing right in front of you outside the f*cking bus?” McGregor asked.
“I showed you my hands, no weapons. The first thing [I did] when I showed up at that bus, I showed my hands to let him know, ‘I have come unarmed, no weapons. Step off the bus, you talked a big game and now I’m here.’ He done f*cking nothing. He sat there and took a shit on that bus. He hid and cowered behind women and caused [what happened], so that’s f*cking that.
“So here’s my location now, you little fool — right in front of you,” he continued.
“Do something about it! Do something about it! Yeah, you’ll do nothing,” McGregor snarled before returning to his chair.
McGregor, now even more fired up, unloaded a succession of more insults to his opponent as the event went on.
Rat bastard, dead man walking, inside, outside the cage you’re dead, was some of the verbage McGregor was lettting off at Nurmagomedov while fielding questions.
When McGregor was asked what he planned on doing Khabib Nurmagomedov once they finally take the center of the octagon at UFC 229, the Irish bad boy replied he would stomp on his head as he’s unconscious.
Nurmagomedov then questioned why McGregor did not reach out to him privately after footage surfaced of him confronting McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov.
“When I slapped your teammate, why didn’t you send me message?” Nurmagomedov asked McGregor. “If you wanted to fix this, why don’t you send me a message? You come with 40 people and you think you can change something?”
“Ask my bollocks,” McGregor roared back. “If you got off that bus, you’d be dead now. You’d be dead and I’d be in a cell, so shut your f*cking mouth about messages. Do I look like a bloke that messages blokes? F*ck you.”
Nurmagomedov responded: “Everybody knows, at media day there is a lot of security. Of course I’m going to sit on bus with all red corner. He comes with 40 people and he thinks he can change something? Okay, we talked with him before, why he don’t send message? Why? He could say, ‘Hey, you have problem with my brother, my teammate,’ something like this, ‘you give him slap, now you have to give answer,’ Okay, I’m going to come.
“He can send one guy, two guys, or be alone — it doesn’t matter. But why you come with 40 people?” he said, turning to McGregor. “You could’ve came alone, with one guy or two guys, but you came with 40 people. What’s changed? Sixth of October, we’re going to see.
Obviously, McGregor disagreed with Nurmagomedov’s theory.
“You cornered a friend of mine and another man, Islam — a Chechen man who had nothing to do with anything — slapped him and abused him on foreign soil,” McGregor said in return. “Your own people, you little rat. And what are you talking about numbers for? You were surrounded by about 40 people, many of them hooded.”
“Why don’t you tell your friend, ‘If someone gives you slap, you have to give him one back’” said Nurmagomedov.
“Artem knows what he should’ve done: He should’ve stitched you a loaf, took his few clatters and got out of there,” stated McGregor. “It’s nothing got to do with him, it’s nothing to do with the other guy — it’s me and you.”
Back in April, Dana White adamantly stated McGregor’s assault on the bus was the most disgusting moment in UFC history, however, him intending to use the footage in building promotion for the fight was a no-brainer.
“It wasn’t tough at all, it’s part of the storyline,” White said. “It is what it is. There have been other situations where things have happened leading up to a fight and we played the story the way that the story played out.”
No comment, was McGregor’s response when asked if the footage of his incident should be utilized for promotion of the event.
McGregor then again referred to death for Nurmagomedov when asked about his emotions during the fiasco in April.
“I just thank the Lord Jesus Christ that that man didn’t have the balls to step foot off that bus, or that the bus door did not open, because if that door did open, this man would be dead right now. He would be in a box and I would be in a cell and we would not have this great fight ahead of us,” he said.
“There are many things that I can speak on about the incident and about the lead-up, and about my emotions and things like that, but there are still many ongoing situations involved in it. I’m just here to compete on October 6th in Las Vegas.”
Nurmagomedov then implied that McGregor showing up with an entourage was a sign of weakness.
“He showed me his weakness, with 40 people,” Nurmagomedov said. “At UFC 205, when we meet in backstage he was very nice guy. But when he come with 40 people, he change. This show his weakness. Me and him is going to be alone.”
