An AI image of Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov sharing a puff of marijuana has been circulating online. Too lazy to take a pencil and carve out some fan art themselves, like people used to back in the days of Tumblr, these fans seemingly commanded Gen AI to reimagine a world where the events leading up to UFC 229 never happened.
McGregor, a long-standing rival of Russian standout Nurmagomedov, shared arguably the biggest rivalry in the history of the promotion in the last decade. It culminated in a rather personal fight back in 2018, where Nurmagomedov prevailed with a stunning fourth-round submission win to retain his lightweight crown.
But in the time since, the duo have been at loggerheads – primarily over McGregor’s obsession with Dagestani and further descent into unparalleled hatred for his conqueror.
He has even tried to goad Nurmagomedov into a rematch in the years since but has failed in light of Khabib not caring enough to return. Regardless, McGregor has made many personal and familial attacks in the direction of Nurmagomedov – something that he doesn’t seem intent on stopping in the near future.
The two are never going to be friends. But in a classic Marvel-inspired ‘What if’ scenario, someone seemingly taken by both fighters had Gen AI produce a picture of the two cordially chilling together. It should be noted that Khabib has openly argued against taking any form of drugs, even something as seemingly harmless as marijuana.
Unseen Photo pic.twitter.com/OnpTuVBitK
— MrTestoestrogen (@MrTestoestrogen) March 28, 2025
However, some fans took one look at it and decided it was “Hands down the most gangster thing AI has generated so far“. Other claimed that AI had “gone too far“.
This is hands down the most gangster thing ai has generated so far.
— Huey (@OnimanAI) March 28, 2025
Another fan played up to a famous Islam Makhachev comment in which he encouraged young children to move to Dagestan to train for some time. “2-3 puffs in Dagestan, forget,” an X user commented.
It should be noted that AI doesn’t actually create anything; it learns from existing art on the internet and copies it. That is a rather polite way to say it steals other artists’ and designers’ work to create sloppy pictures such as this.
It is a waste, really, because if people actually wanted to see Khabib and Conor hang out together, they could just look at a real picture of them.
McGregor poses with Khabib at UFC 179
During his featherweight run en route to the divisional title, McGregor ran into rival Dustin Poirier back in 2014. Joining him backstage that night in Boston was his to be arch nemesis- Khabib.
Posing for a photo backstage in the Dubliner’s locker room, Nurmagomedov event went as far as to praise McGregor’s first-round win over the Louisianan in their high-stakes pairing.
However, if you ask UFC CEO Dana White about this meeting, he is adamant that the duo were never even close to being friends.
“These guys (Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov) are both killers“, White said on the Games With Names podcast. They both want to be the best. They both wanna win. And they are both willing to fight anyone and do anything to be the best.
“So, when you get those two types of guys there’s no being buddies,” White added. “Those two are on a collision course before they even knew they were”, he had said at the time, trying to sell the fight.
Do you think Conor and Khabib were buddies or could have been if Artem Lobov didn’t get clapped in the case? Or would Conor have found a way to throw that chair regardless?
