It’s been a couple of weeks since UFC 229 went down, and the now infamous, post-fight brawl, but more stories and takes of the incident continue to materialize.
Case in point, Daniel Cormier was on hand at the October 6th event, and as you know, he’s a longtime friend and teammate of Khabib Nurmagomedov. So, after the latter submitted Conor McGregor, and jumped over the cage to get at Dillon Danis, McGregor’s cornerman, Cormier reportedly entered the fray. But, ultimately, “DC” decided to intervene in an effort to split everyone up, and help bring the melee to an end.
Recently Cormier spoke with the media, in advance of his UFC 230 bout with Derrick Lewis. Of course, he was asked for his take on what unfolded at UFC 229. While discussing the aftermath, and his conversation with Khabib, the champ-champ said this (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“For me, it sucks that it was in front of all these people. But again, it was just a whole bunch of dudes just kind of fighting, acting crazy. Like, what are you guys doing? Every city in the country, every Saturday in some frickin’ street bar or a club, this is going on. It just happened between a whole bunch of Russian guys and a whole bunch of Irish guys in front of millions of people. So for me, I had to kind of separate the idea that I was kind of laughing to try and to go like, guys we are probably in front of the biggest viewership we’ve ever had.”
“Then when we get to the locker room, I asked him,” Cormier said. “I go, ‘Hey,’ He goes, ‘Yeah?’ I go, ‘So, what was the desired outcome there?’ I go, ‘Did you want to step on his head? What did you want to do?’ Like, what in your mind were you wanting to accomplish? Were you gonna drop kick him? Double foot kick him? Like, what were you doing? He goes, ‘Brother, I don’t know. I lose my mind.’ I said, ‘I know you did.’”
There you have it. It’s been interesting to see how things have calmed down, in terms of reaction to the brawl. The night it happened, and the following day, there were a lot of calls for Khabib to be stripped of the belt. But, now that the dust has settled, and it’s clear no one was seriously hurt, that type of rhetoric has pretty much disappeared.
It still remains to be seen what type of discplinary action Nurmagomedov will receive, however, from the Nevada Commission, as a result of the unfortunate incident.