McGregor vs. Nurmagomedov: Notorious Is Back

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Conor McGregor will fight in the mixed martial arts octagon for the first time in almost two years.CreditCreditIsaac Brekken/Getty Images

By Victor Mather

Oct. 5, 2018

After nearly two years, Conor McGregor, still the biggest star in mixed martial arts, is finally returning to the octagon. No warm-ups for McGregor: He jumps right into a bout against the U.F.C. lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, in Las Vegas.

The fight is part of a pay-per-view card starting at 10 p.m., Eastern time. The main event will probably go off after midnight. Preliminary bouts will be telecast on Fox Sports 1 from 8 to 10 p.m.

It has been an eventful, and lucrative, hiatus for McGregor, the man known as Notorious.

In November 2016, he dominated Eddie Alvarez to gain the lightweight title, becoming the first man to hold two U.F.C. titles simultaneously. (He already held the featherweight title.) The bout, along with previous wins over Jose Aldo and Nate Diaz, helped catapult him to the pinnacle of the sport, with magazine covers, TV appearances and an army of fanatical followers, many of them Irish or Irish-American.

McGregor then stepped away from mixed martial arts, moving on to fatherhood and, improbably, a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr., who came out of retirement. Their bout, in August 2017, was a sensation, drawing outsize viewership and attention and earning McGregor $100 million. McGregor was beaten, but not before hanging in for 10 rounds and drawing grudging respect even from many boxing fans.

But his foray into boxing kept him away from the octagon. He was stripped of his U.F.C. featherweight title in 2016 for inactivity and lost the lightweight title for the same reason in April of this year, leaving him in the weird state of being without a championship while still being the sport’s biggest superstar.

Not that he was out of the spotlight. Last November, he jumped into the cage after a friend fought, then shoved the ref when he was ordered to leave. “I let my emotions get the best of me and acted out of line,” he said in apologizing later.

In April, he hurled a dolly at a bus at Barclays Center in Brooklyn that was filled with U.F.C. fighters, smashing a window and injuring two fighters badly enough that they could not fight that weekend. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, and was sentenced to community service.

That incident was triggered by a perceived slight to a friend of McGregor’s doled out by none other than Nurmagomedov, his opponent on Saturday.

Khabib Nurmagomedov is the U.F.C. lightweight champion.CreditJohn Locher/Associated Press

Nurmagomedov will be a formidable opponent. He has a 26-0 record with the last 10 of those fights coming in the ultracompetitive U.F.C.: His victims include Rafael dos Anjos, Edson Barboza and Al Iaquinta. An outstanding wrestler, Nurmagomedov will offer a contrast of styles with McGregor’s striking.

And the bad blood between the two goes back several years. McGregor even recently dismissed video of Nurmagomedov wrestling a bear.

“He may have wrestled Dagestani bears,” he said on Conan O’Brien’s late-night TV show. “But he has never wrestled an Irish gorilla, Conan, and that’s what he’s about to face.”

McGregor said: “I am under no illusions, he is a skilled wrestler. There’s many more facets to fighting. A lot more than one single discipline.

“I have many, many weapons to dismantle all styles of opponent. This is just another style of opponent. I believe he’s slow, he’s flat-footed. His striking is very average, and I look to expose that on Saturday night.”

Nurmagomedov acknowledged the disparity in styles: “I think beginning of first round I have to be careful with him because he has good timing and good boxing, but my wrestling is my pressure. He has to kill me to stop me.”

McGregor’s taunts led Nurmagomedov to tell ESPN: “At press conference, he look like drunk guy. It’s crazy.” McGregor had taken a slug of a whiskey he promotes at the news conference. Nurmagomedov, who does not drink, turned down a glass. At yet another news conference, on Thursday, Nurmagomedov refused to wait for a tardy McGregor, answered a few questions to the jeers of the pro-McGregor crowd, then left. McGregor rolled in about a half-hour late.

Whether it is concerns about McGregor’s ring rust or his out-of-the-ring shenanigans or simply respect for Nurmagomedov’s wrestling and record, McGregor is in the unaccustomed position of being the 8-5 underdog in the fight. That gives him a roughly 40 percent chance of winning, at least according to bookmakers.

So can McGregor return to his old sport as good as he was when he left it and defeat one of the best fighters in the game? His fans will be waiting, and paying, to find out.