{"id":7089,"date":"2026-07-09T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=7089"},"modified":"2026-07-09T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:12:00","slug":"ahead-of-ufc-329-conor-mcgregor-reignites-his-war-with-khabib-he-accomplished-nothing-i-give-him-no-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/ahead-of-ufc-329-conor-mcgregor-reignites-his-war-with-khabib-he-accomplished-nothing-i-give-him-no-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahead of UFC 329\u2026 Conor McGregor Reignites His War with Khabib: \u201cHe Accomplished Nothing\u2026 I Give Him No Respect\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">In combat sports, some rivalries end when the final bell rings. Others outlive the fight itself, evolving into legacies that refuse to fade. The feud between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov belongs to the latter category. Years after their historic clash, their rivalry remains one of the defining storylines in mixed martial arts, resurfacing whenever either man&#8217;s name returns to the spotlight.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" style=\"height:500px\" ><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CombatSportsCentral\/comments\/1urlial\/conor_mcgregor_refuses_to_acknowledge_khabib\/\">Conor McGregor refuses to acknowledge Khabib Nurmagomedov&#39;s UFC legacy<\/a><br \/> by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/One-Faithlessness730\/\">u\/One-Faithlessness730<\/a> in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/CombatSportsCentral\/\">CombatSportsCentral<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.reddit.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">As he prepares for his long-awaited return to the Octagon in the main event of UFC 329 in Las Vegas, McGregor has once again reopened one of the UFC&#8217;s most controversial chapters. During fight week, the Irish superstar launched another verbal assault on his longtime rival, reigniting a rivalry that has never truly disappeared.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Return to the Octagon&#8230; and Back to Psychological Warfare<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">After five years away from competition, &#8220;The Notorious&#8221; is set to face Max Holloway in the welterweight division (under 77 kg). Many question whether the former two-division UFC champion can still perform at the level that once made him the biggest attraction in mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Yet McGregor has always built his legacy as much through his commanding media presence as through his performances inside the cage. Even before stepping into the Octagon, he has once again positioned himself at the center of the conversation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Speaking with <strong>Complex<\/strong>, McGregor quickly shifted the discussion from Holloway to the man who handed him the first submission loss of his UFC career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to McGregor, Khabib &#8220;accomplished nothing in this sport.&#8221; He argued that their 2018 meeting did not reflect his true abilities, claiming he entered that fight during one of the most chaotic periods of his life, far removed from the discipline and focus that had previously carried him to championship success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">McGregor insisted that he had been inactive for nearly two years before UFC 229, living a lifestyle dominated by partying and distractions, and competing while far from his physical and mental peak.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Challenging the Legacy of &#8220;The Eagle&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">McGregor&#8217;s criticism extended well beyond the circumstances surrounding their fight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">He questioned Nurmagomedov&#8217;s entire competitive r\u00e9sum\u00e9, arguing that the early portion of the Dagestani&#8217;s career took place in regional events promoted by his father, far from the global spotlight. He also criticized Khabib for never moving up in weight and suggested that his record lacked the spectacular knockout finishes often associated with the sport&#8217;s most feared finishers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">While these comments are entirely consistent with McGregor&#8217;s trademark style of psychological warfare and pre-fight promotion, they also reveal an undeniable truth: his defeat to Khabib remains one of the defining and most painful moments of his professional career.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Rivalry That Outgrew the Sport Itself<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The hostility between McGregor and Nurmagomedov did not begin inside the Octagon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">It developed over months of personal attacks, public confrontations, and highly publicized incidents, culminating in the infamous Brooklyn bus attack before reaching its peak at UFC 229 in October 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">That night, Nurmagomedov imposed his trademark wrestling pressure before submitting McGregor in the fourth round to retain the UFC lightweight championship. But the fight itself became only part of the story. What followed was one of the most chaotic scenes in UFC history, as a post-fight brawl erupted inside and outside the cage, forever cementing the event as one of the most unforgettable nights the promotion has ever witnessed.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Strategic Mind Games&#8230; or a Wound That Never Fully Healed?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The timing of McGregor&#8217;s latest comments appears far from accidental.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">With one of the most important fights of his comeback approaching, the Irishman understands better than anyone that remaining at the center of public attention is part of his competitive identity, whether through performances inside the cage or statements outside of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the same time, many observers believe that his repeated return to the subject of Khabib suggests something deeper. The defeat at UFC 229 continues to cast a long shadow over McGregor&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">While Nurmagomedov retired with an undefeated record and a legacy that remains untouched, McGregor now finds himself attempting to rebuild his own after years marked by injuries, inactivity, and setbacks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Whether one agrees with McGregor&#8217;s assessment or not, one fact remains impossible to ignore: Khabib Nurmagomedov&#8217;s name continues to resurface at every defining moment of Conor McGregor&#8217;s career. It is further proof that one of the greatest rivalries in mixed martial arts history never truly ended when the fight was over\u2014it continues to live on through interviews, public debate, and the collective memory of MMA fans around the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In combat sports, some rivalries end when the final bell rings. Others outlive the fight itself, evolving into legacies that refuse to fade. The feud between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov belongs to the latter category. Years after their historic clash, their rivalry remains one of the defining storylines in mixed martial arts, resurfacing whenever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,86,21,91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"category-mma-video","9":"category-ufc-news","10":"category-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7091,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7089\/revisions\/7091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}