Just a day after Khabib Nurmagomedov boldly claimed that Ireland’s MMA had nothing compared to its counterparts in Dagestan, Conor McGregor has risen from obscurity once again with clips of his own time in the sport. While it still does very little to prove Khabib wrong, it is practically a highlight reel of himself for a few years compared to videos of Khabib and Islam Makhachev grappling.
McGregor’s clip has footage of his ‘prime’ i,e., fights with Nate Diaz, Eddie Alvarez, and Dustin Poirier among others, where he is seen being quick and precise with his striking, knocking people out in style. In comparison, the Dagestani clips have Khabib and Islam primarily on the ground, with his opponents on their back.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 3, 2025
What McGregor perhaps intends to insinuate by using this clip is that he was far more entertaining, because in most of the clips from Dagestan, the fighters seem to be dominating on the ground, just as McGregor was seen dominating on his feet.
Earlier yesterday, Khabib had boldly claimed that Ireland’s talent pool wasn’t very deep with only a couple of known fighters like Conor and Paul Hughes (PFL). Conor’s clips are only of himself, so they do little to nothing to prove him wrong.
“Ireland don’t have fighters, brother. Let’s be honest. How many fighters do you know from Ireland? Paul Hughes and Conor , and who else?… Dagestan level of MMA here but Ireland… not even half.”
The has spoken ️
How do you see it playing out between Dagestan’s Usman Nurmagomedov and Ireland’s Paul Hughes battle for the @BellatorMMA Lightweight World Title #RoadtoDubai | Sat Jan 25 | Coca-Cola Arena | Dubai, UAE pic.twitter.com/CiNP4167kz
— PFL (@PFLMMA) January 2, 2025
However, Khabib’s claims also need to be taken with a huge grain of salt.
Khabib claims promotions don’t sign Dagestanis out of fear
The former lightweight champion also claimed yesterday that the fighters from Dagestan were so good that MMA organizations across the world were hesitant to sign them because everybody could become a champion. Now, while it is no mystery that Dagestani fighters have been a rather dominant force in MMA, a lot of that credit goes to the Nurmgomedov family.
Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s dream of making Khabib a world champion put the small mountainous country on the MMA world map. And today that dream lives on through his academy products like UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov and Umar Nurmagomedov, who challenges for the UFC bantamweight title later this month.
This is quite a formidable force in itself but it is also self-contained to one academy. So to claim a depth of pool and compare it to Ireland seems rather self-congratulatory than anything else.
