UFC Lightweight Champ Khabib Nurmagomedov Threatens to Quit

It’s been almost a week since the post-main event madness went down at UFC 229, and things aren’t cooling down. Click here if you need to get up to speed on what went down, but here’s a quick recap: After tapping out Conor McGregor in the fourth round, via neck crank to retain the lightweight title, Khabib Nurmagomedov scaled the cage and charged at McGregor’s grappling coach, Dillon Danis, in response to months’ worth of disrespectful trash talk.

The incident ignited a team-on-team brawl that saw McGregor getting jumped by the Russian team, one of whom was a fighter by the name of Zubaira Tukhugov. Dana White later said that the men who attacked McGregor would never fight in the UFC. Turns out, Khabib wasn’t having it. He took to Instagram to say this: 

“If you decide to fire him, you should know that you’ll lose me too. We never give up on our brothers in Russia and I will go to the end for my Brother. If you still decide to fire him, don’t forget to send me my broken contract, otherwise I’ll break it myself.”

It’s a big power play on the part of Nurmagomedov. He defended his belt, handily, against the biggest name in combat sports today and set himself up for huge paydays in his fights to come. Yet, in typical Khabib fashion, he only cares about honor. So much so that he offered up his reported $2 million purse, too.

“And one more thing, you can keep my money that you are withholding. You are pretty busy with that, I hope it won’t get stuck in your throat. We have defended our honor and this is the most important thing. We intend to go to the end.”