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The story of Khabib Nurmagomedov's mixed martial arts career can never be told without Conor McGregor, without the explanation of McGregor's attack on a bus in which Nurmagomedov was sitting and without its many provocative and highly incendiary taunts against the light weight of UFC Dagestan, Russia.
The story of McGregor's career is much more than a one-sided defeat against his greatest rival, though history never forgets the cruel nature of his words and the relentlessness of his verbal assault.
They have made sure that as long as people talk about MMA, one name can not be pronounced without saying the other. They were once friendly friends who, by the nature of their sport, were transformed into bitter rivals.
In many ways, their rivalry reflects the relationship between the legendary former heavyweight, the legendary weights, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Professional sports of all kinds are defined by rivalries. However, there may never have been a sporting rivalry as big, as brisk and complex as Ali-Frazier. It started when they were young men, the two best heavyweight boxers in the world, and continued until they were older men, when Frazier had a hard time forgiving Ali's many transgressions . And although the two men appeared in public together happily in their final years, the hatred was softened, but never dissipated.
Nurmagomedov and McGregor are in the middle of their rivalry and that has not happened over the decades, or even multiple fights, as was the case with Ali and Frazier.
But by attacking a bus in which Nurmagomedov sat, then defying the champion of his religion, tearing his father and taking far too many personal shots, McGregor pushed Nurmagomedov to go over the boiling point.
When Nurmagomedov forced McGregor to use his bid in the fourth round of a unilateral bout on Saturday at the main event of UFC 229 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, he got this which should have been the ultimate justification.
Khabib Nurmagomedov submits Conor McGregor to his fight for the UFC Lightweight title at UFC 229 at T-Mobile Arena on October 6, 2018 in Las Vegas. (Josh Hedges / Zuffa LLC)
McGregor's words had, however, been at the heart of Nurmagomedov's identity, and a mere victory by submission had not extinguished the fire that McGregor had lit up inside him. Then, in an extremely bad decision, Nurmagomedov jumped over the cage after proposing to McGregor to start a fight with Dillon Danis, the McGuizu Jujitsu coach.
Danis is a Bellator fighter who is more accomplished as a talker than now as an MMA fighter. But he made fun of Nurmagomedov too, and Nurmagomedov could not contain himself. He definitely changed the story of his career by jumping into the cage and attacking Danis, a man whose majority of the 20,034 fans of T-Mobile Arena had never heard of before. .
There are certainly differences, but the many similarities between the McGregor-Nurmagomedov rivalry and the Ali-Frazier rivalry are disturbing.
In 2000, HBO Sports aired a brilliant documentary about the Ali-Frazier rivalry, which allowed viewers to better understand what fed boxers and why their rivalry lasted so long. It may be a case where the past is a prologue; a look at what will come with star MMA fighters.
The documentary, "Ali-Frazier: A Divisible Nation," debuted on HBO on July 21, 2000. It explained the parallel rise of fighters and the way Frazier helped Ali during his ban on boxing.
He explained how, while Ali thought that his words were a means of promoting their struggles and winning each other large sums of money, Frazier took them very personally. In summary, that is why Nurmagomedov visited the cage on Saturday. McGregor sold the fight by mocking Nurmagomedov's father, denigrating his religion and making inflammatory personal comments about him.
At the end of the third round, it seems that McGregor said, "This is just business," said Nurmagomedov.
It was more than that for Nurmagomedov, just as for Frazier, who kept the grudge for decades after the end of both careers.
Shortly after being banned from boxing in 1967, Ali refused to enter the army. He was struggling to make ends meet and began lecturing on university campuses to earn money to pay his legal bills.
Frazier was there for Ali at every turn. He had spoken to politicians to implore them to allow Ali to fight. He followed many of Ali's stunts, including one in which Ali went to his gym and called him, asking him to fight in a local park.
But the best example of what Frazier tried to do for Ali during his ban was to help him financially after meeting Ali's close associate, Bundini Brown, outside a New York hotel.
Sweat flies from Joe Frazier's head as heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali ties a straight to the ninth round of their title fight in Manila, Philippines, on this archival photo from 1 October 1975. (Photo AP / Mitsunori Chigita)
According to the documentary, Brown reportedly told Frazier and Butch Lewis, the promoter who was in the car with Frazier, that Ali was struggling to pay his hotel bill. Frazier summoned Ali in his limousine.
From the documentary:
Lewis: "We were in New York, Joe and I. Bundini Brown saw us arrive at the hotel and told us that they had a problem with Ali's bill. I said to Bundini, "Let me talk to Joe about it." We brought Ali into the limousine. "
Frazier: "I gave him a ride. Put a little love in his hand. D & # 39; right? Money. "
Lewis: "I think it's like a few thousand dollars."
Ali said no when Frazier offered to help, but Frazier insisted and Lewis put the money in the pocket of his shirt. Then Ali got out of the car and went to the act.
Lewis: "When Ali got out of the car, it was as if a switch had tripped. He begins: "Very well, Frazier. Get out the car now. I want you now. "
For years, Ali insulted Frazier and they fought three of the biggest matches in the history of boxing. Later in the documentary, Frazier's son, Marvis, said, "What really hurt my father, he gave his heart and soul to help a brother, and then that brother came back like a knife and got it chopped off."
Few things were out of bounds when Ali was promoting a fight. After all, these are just business, an attempt to sell the fight. It was nothing personal. McGregor has adopted this mantra and uses his pre-fight speech not only to brag about the series, but also to fight his opponents' heads and try to have a negative impact on their performance.
McGregor does nothing that Ali has not done in years. And Nurmagomedov, like Frazier, could not ignore that, could not ignore the many cruel, sharp and harsh words that McGregor and Co. had spoken.
The number of similarities between the two situations is remarkable.
The difference is that Joe Frazier never jumped over the ropes to attack anyone on Ali's side.
Nurmagomedov did it and he will pay for this mistake now and in the future.
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