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Saturday 6th October in Vegas. The Wait Is Over!

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PPV MAIN CARD
Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Conor McGregor - Lightweight Title

Tony Ferguson vs Anthony Pettis

Ovince Saint Preux vs Dominick Reyes 

Derrick Lewis vs Alexander Volkov 

Michelle Waterson vs Felice Herrig

 

FOX SPORTS 1 PRELIMS
Sean O'Malley vs Jose Alberto Quinonez 

Sergio Pettis vs Jussier Formiga 

Vicente Luque vs Jalin Turner

Tonya Evinger vs Aspen Ladd 

 

FIGHT PASS PRELIMS
Lina Lansberg vs Yana Kunitskaya

Scott Holtzman vs Alan Patrick 

Gray Maynard vs Nik Lentz

Ryan LaFlare vs Tony Martin 

 

Apologies in advance. This is probably going to be a long one but, seeing as it's easily the biggest lightweight fight ever and possibly the biggest MMA fight full-stop, I wanted to really get into the whole timeline of how this started and got so big. You might want to put the kettle on. 

 

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Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Conor McGregor then. Fuck me it's been a long journey to get to this point but we're almost there now. Please, please nothing balls this up. 

OK, I'm going way back and going through the whole timeline of events here. If you can't be arsed to read it then at least scroll down and watch the awesome promo for this fight. 

Right then. 

14th July 1988. Conor McGregor was born in Crumlin, Dublin, Ireland. Just a few weeks later on 20th September 1988, over in Sildi, Dagestan, Russia, Khabib Nurmagomedov was born. And a collision course began. 

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The young Conor grew up as a football fanatic originally. His dad described football as being Conor's "first love" and he played for Lourdes Celtic FC as a kid. 

Over in Russia, Khabib started wrestling at just 6 years old in the gym his dad had converted part of their house into. It's also well documented that he spent a fair chunk of his childhood rolling around the yard with bears.  

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Yes, actual bears. That is Khabib, at 9, wrestling a bastard bear! 

Back in Dublin, 12 year old Conor McGregor had grown bored of playing football. His dad took him to the Crumlin Boxing Club and that was that. Conor fell in love with throwing punches and never looked back. 

16 year old Khabib broke up the monotony of single-legging bears in the garden by fucking about with guns. 

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What happened to Kerplunk? Mouse Trap? Mega Drive? Playstation? Bears and fucking guns this one. 

Conor kept up the training at the Boxing Club and somewhere along the line he got into watching MMA. He was doing a plumbing apprenticeship at this time and was miserable. In 2006 he met Tom Egan (the UFC's first Irish fighter, if I'm not mistaken), they became friends and Conor started training MMA. He took an amateur fight in early 2007, which he won by first round TKO, and soon turned pro and started training under John Kavanagh at the Straight Blast Gym. 

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20 year old Conor at his first live UFC, meeting Chuck Liddell. 

2008: Both Conor and Khabib begin their professional MMA careers. Conor was first, winning his debut in March by TKO. He scored another TKO in May before suffering his first setback. In his third fight in June, he got submitted in just over a minute via kneebar. Khabib debuted in September, and was already 4-0 within a month! McGregor bounced back in December and won by quick TKO, moving to 3-1. 

2009: Khabib had a good year. He won 3 more fights, all stoppages, moving to 7-0 overall. McGregor never fought at all in 2009. I think this must've been the period John Kavanagh has talked about before, where Conor went off the rails for a bit, stopped showing up at the gym and was basically living like a bum. The story goes that his mum reached out to Kavanagh and Kavanagh had to come and talk some sense into him. 

2010: Another 2 fights for Khabib, another 2 wins. By now he's 9-0, fighting in M-1 in Russia and has established himself as a legit prospect. Conor didn't fight until October but he finally got his arse in gear, came back and scored another TKO win. From there he made his Cage Warriors debut in November. His biggest opportunity to date. And lost again. Joseph Duffy subbed him with an arm triangle in just 38 seconds. Disaster. 

2011: This was the year where both men kicked it up a level. Conor rebounded from his loss to Duffy in style this year. He went 5-0 with 5 knockouts! But not to be outdone, Khabib went 7-0 with 7 finishes. As we enter 2012, Khabib sits at 16-0, Conor is 9-2. 

2012: A big year for Khabib. Following his impressive 7 wins in 2011, the UFC came calling. Khabib's Octagon debut was set for January's UFC on FX show in Nashville. He was on the FUEL TV prelims against tough Iranian Kamal Shalorus. 

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It was a successful debut. Khabib submitted Shalorus with a rear naked choke in the third round. He followed that up with a decision over perennial lightweight gatekeeper Gleison Tibau in July, on the UFC 148: Silva vs Sonnen 2 undercard. Back in Cage Warriors, McGregor didn't have a bad 2012 himself. He won all 3 of his fights, all finishes, and won both the Cage Warriors 145lbs and 155lbs titles in back to back fights. 

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It was only a matter of time until that UFC call came. 

2013: Another 3 wins in the bag for Khabib. He knocked out Thiago Tavares in January, decisioned Abel Trujillo in May and Pat Healy in September. Just squashed the lot of them. In February, Dana White met with Conor McGregor after Irish fans bombarded him on social media. Within days of the meeting, Dana offered McGregor a UFC contract. 

He made his debut in April. His fight with Marcus Brimage was treated like just another undercard fight. It was streamed on the Facebook prelims of a FUEL TV card in Sweden. Nothing special. But in the week leading up to the show he was the highlight of the fight week media. And on fight night itself...

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He delivered in a big way. It took him 1:07 to put Brimage away via TKO. No 'octagon jitters' in sight. He looked leagues and leagues above Brimage in the striking. A UFC debut not too dissimilar to Anderson Silva's back when he pissed through Chris Leben with ease. McGregor stole the show with his performance both in the cage and in his post-fight interview, calling for the 60K Knockout Of The Night bonus. 

"DANA, 60 G's BABY!" - Conor McGregor 

With his momentum high coming off that debut, he was a natural choice for the UFC's big upcoming FOX Sports 1 debut show in August. Especially with the show being in Boston and the Irish population there. 

What was amazing about this was that it was only his second UFC fight, he was on a card with the likes of Chael Sonnen, Shogun Rua, Alistair Overeem and Urijah Faber, big names in the sport, but it was McGregor who dominated the media events in the buildup. He was all the MMA journalists and fans wanted to talk about. 

He was matched up with another young prospect in Hawaiian Max Holloway. 

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McGregor won but he certainly didn't have it as easy as his debut. It went the distance, McGregor won clearly but he injuried his knee and had to adapt mid-fight and just play it safe for much of the second half of the fight. Post-fight scans revealed Conor had torn his ACL and would be out of action for the best part of a year. Just when he was on a high and his profile was raising, he was sidelined. 

2014: Khabib only fought once this year but, to this day, this was one of his most impressive nights for me. He took on Rafael Dos Anjos in April on FOX. 

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And absolutely dominated him. This was a real eye opener for me. I rated Khabib before this but nothing I'd seen had blown me away. Dos Anjos was and still is a beast though, on paper this was a big step up for Khabib and he just steamrolled him. And this was RDA during perhaps his scariest period. You look at RDA's record from around that time. He'd won 5 fights coming into this one and he won 5 fights after this fight. Take the Khabib loss out and that's a 10 fight stretch where RDA won the title and beat Pettis, Cerrone x2, Bendo, Nate etc. Khabib trounced that guy! I remember feeling like this was a significant and big wakeup call at the time. Khabib was on my radar as a killer from that day forward. With this win, Khabib improved to 22-0. 

Unfortunately, Khabib suffered a knee injury of his own. It was the start of a run of injuries that ended up shelving him for the next 2 years. 

McGregor returned to action in July after 11 months recovering from his fucked ACL. And it would be a real homecoming as the UFC were finally holding another event in Dublin, Ireland. I remember the hype for this show being quite something. McGregor's return to the cage was highly anticipated. 

McGregor would be in a UFC main event for the first time against Brazilian Diego Brandao. 

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He stopped Brandao by TKO within a round and the Dublin crowd went fucking bananas. 

"We're not here to take part. We're here to take over!" - Conor McGregor

With McGregor now firmly back in the game, the fun really began. McGregor was all over the MMA news and media. and every other day there'd be a story or a great quote doing the rounds. And he started targeting the entire featherweight division. There were a few little barbs thrown at the champ Jose Aldo but it was all mostly good natured needling like calling Dustin Poirier 'Pea Head' and calling Cub Swanson 'Hans Moleman'. 

I loved McGregor around this time. He was just so much fun and really entertaining to watch and listen to. He hadn't yet disappeared up his own arse or became a proper dickhead. He just seemed like a guy getting to live out his dream and he was genuinely likeable around this time. Of course, like anyone or anything else, he wasn't for everyone. He always had his critics. But at this point the worst you'd hear about him was that he 'hadn't been tested yet', was 'avoiding the wrestlers of the division' and that he was 'talking his way into fights he didn't deserve'. That kind of silly shite. 

Anyway, his next fight was booked for September at UFC 178. It would be his first PPV and against his first Top 10 ranked opponent. Dustin 'Pea Head' Poirier. 

Before the fight the anti-McGregor fans were saying that McGregor needed to be tested by a Top 10 guy and were predicting Poirier was going to batter him. McGregor was insisting he'd get the KO in a round. The critics laughed. 

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1:46 later, it was all over. 

"I don't just knock them out. I pick the round." - Conor McGregor

Of course, the goalposts were then moved again and now Poirier was being called a 'favourable match'. McGregor would get schooled by even a decent wrestler and Aldo would kill him. 

Bsckstage that night, they finally met. 

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Khabib and Conor back in friendlier times. 

It was about this time that Arnold Fucking Schwarzenegger declared his Conor McGregor fandom. There was a cool bit on one of the many McGregor documentaries where Arnie turns up at McGregor's house he's using for his training camp and Conor completely marks out. 

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Following the Poirier win, McGregor had called out long time 145lbs champ Jose Aldo. The fight wasn't close to being made yet but this was when talk of it really started picking up steam. 

2015: The year kicked off with McGregor returning to Boston. He headlined a FS1 Fight Night against German Dennis Siver. Dana White confirmed that if Conor won, he'd get a title shot against Aldo. 

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McGregor smashed Siver and put him away in the second round. He then jumped the fence and screamed in Aldo's face at cageside. 

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It wasn't long before the fight was official. Jose Aldo vs Conor McGregor, for the title, would take place at UFC 189 in Vegas in July. To promote the fight, the UFC did a massive World Tour of press conferences in March which hit Rio, Dublin, New York, London, Toronto, Boston, LA and Vegas. It was absolute bedlam and the Dublin leg of the tour was especially crazy. 

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McGregor wound Aldo up at every turn, constantly taunting and goading him, even snatching his title at one presser. 

In June though, the news dropped like a rancid turd that the fight was off. Aldo had a fractured rib and was out. Trying to salvage something from it, the UFC booked McGregor to face Chad Mendes instead. It would be for the interim title with the winner facing Aldo in a unification match when he healed up. This was a big ask as Mendes was a wrestler and a completely different style to Aldo. 

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McGregor pulled it off. After a rough first round which saw Mendes take Conor down, bloody him up and control him, McGregor rallied in the second and knocked him out. It was an emotional moment to close one of the best PPVs in UFC history. McGregor was in tears as he celebrated in the cage with his family, hugging his mum, draped in the Irish flag and all that good stuff. 

From there, naturally, attention quickly turned back to the Aldo fight. Which was now even bigger. McGregor coached TUF opposite Urijah Faber during this time but the whole time it was Aldo vs McGregor that was building. In August, Dana confirmed it. Aldo vs McGregor was back on for December's UFC 194. 

Overall, I'd say the buildup to Aldo vs McGregor is probably the best in UFC history. It's either this or Lesnar vs Mir 2 at UFC 100 for me. Just insane levels of anticipation and excitement. People always want to declare different fights 'the biggest and most anticipated ever' but Aldo vs McGregor is truly going to take some topping. 

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13 seconds. 

After all that waiting. All the debating who'd win. All the setbacks. A whole year of hype and press conferences and media buzz. All over in 13 fucking seconds. I still can't decide if it was great or if I feel robbed that we never got that epic fight we were all waiting for. Regardless, Conor McGregor had KO'd Jose Aldo in 13 seconds and was now the undisputed UFC featherweight champion. 

"Break out the red panties!" - Conor McGregor

2016: Typical of MMA, all good things come to an end. McGregor's next fight was supposed to be a champion vs champion fight against lightweight king Rafael Dos Anjos in March. A chance for McGregor to make history and hold 2 division's titles simultaneously like he did in Cage Warriors previously. But just 2 weeks before the fight, RDA pulled out with a broken foot. After scrambling around the UFC found a replacement. Nate Diaz would step in on late notice to face McGregor, at welterweight, in the new main event of UFC 196. 

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And Nate spoiled the party. After an exciting first round, Conor looked to be feeling the pace in the second. Nate cracked him with a left hand which had Conor wobbly, then it went to the mat and it wasn't long before Conor was tapping to a choke. 

"I'm not surprised, motherfuckers." - Nate Diaz 

It was McGregor's first loss in the UFC and his record was now 19-3. 

All this time Khabib had been out. He hadn't fought since 2014. In April he finally returned and battered Darrell Horcher to a second round TKO. 

In August, Conor rematched Nate Diaz at UFC 202. 

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It was a tremendous fight and they went all 5 rounds in a close one. McGregor got the judges nod in the end, evening the score with Diaz. 

And this is where the Khabib vs Conor story really starts to escalate. 

After years of legal wrangling, the UFC finally got the green light to hold events in New York. Their debut show for Madison Square Garden, UFC 205, was booked for November. 

In September, Khabib signed a contract to fight Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight strap on the MSG show. But the UFC changed plans and decided on a Alvarez vs McGregor title match instead. Understandably, Khabib was pissed. 

"This is number one bullshit! I talk to Dana and I say 'Don't send me any more your fake contracts. I need real contract." - Khabib Nurmagomedov

So Khabib ended up fighting top contender Michael Johnson at the Garden instead. He utterly wrecked Johnson. Took him down and just beat the shit out of him. All the while, talking to him and advising him to quit for his own good. 

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He even took time out between rounds to tell Dana at cageside that what he had planned for McGregor. 

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Poor Michael Johnson was just collateral damage. The Apollo Creed to Khabib's Drago, if you will. He never stood a chance. People make a lot of Johnson 'having Khabib in trouble' early in this fight but it's way overblown. He got fucked up then Khabib nearly ripped his arm off. 

Khabib then had a message for Conor. 

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"I want to stay humble, but I have to talk because your guy talks too much. Your guy...beginning of the year he tap like chicken, end of the year he fight for the title. Crazy. You know this is true, this is not trash talking. Hey guys...Irish only 6 million, Russian 150 million. I want to fight with your chicken because this is number one easy fight in lightweight division." - Khabib Nurmagomedov

Later that night in the main event, 145lbs champ McGregor faced 155lbs champ Eddie Alvarez. It turned out to be one of McGregor's most impressive showings. Up there with the Aldo win, IMO. 

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He put on an absolute masterclass and bashed Alvarez all around the Octagon before stopping him in round 2. 

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With this win, Conor McGregor made history and became the first fighter to hold 2 UFC titles in 2 divisions at the same time.

2017: Coming off that MSG show with both men putting in perhaps their career best performances, it seemed inevitable that the two would finally clash sometime in 2017. But it wasn't to be. 

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Conor took some time away for the birth of his son. 

And then this circus came to town...

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After a load of talk and rumours that nobody really expected to amount to anything, somehow it got signed. A Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor boxing match was a real thing. 

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Conor obviously stood to make more money than he ever thought he'd see off this fight. The actual number still isn't known but the talk was that he'd get about $100 million off it. 

Of course, the buildup was a total show. The whole thing was weird as fuck. Not to mention the whole Paulie Malignaggi subplot with the sparring stories, leaked pictures and clips and all the interviews and stuff. 

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I genuinely thought Paulie was having a breakdown when these pictures were let out and he seemed to spend the whole buildup doing this face;

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"Where's your bawls? Where's your bawls? Did you bring your bawls, Conor? Did you bring your bawls?" - Paulie Malignaggi for pretty much all of August 2017 

Anyway, the fight happened. 

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And unsurprisingly, Conor got spanked. 

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But yeah, he got more money than most of us know what to do with and in the months following the Mayweather fight, McGregor went a bit mental. 

In October he was at the UFC's Fight Night event in Poland to support his teammate Artem Lobov in his fight with Andre Fili. He behaved like a bit of a knob at cageside and referee Marc Goddard had to tell him to sit his arse down. Not a massive deal in itself. Then a video came out, from the same show, of McGregor calling Andre Fili a 'faggot'. Not good. 

Couple of weeks later in November, McGregor attended Bellator 187 in Dublin. After his teammate Charlie Ward won his fight by knockout, McGregor jumped the fence and stormed the cage like a lunatic. Again, the referee was Marc Goddard who tried to order McGregor to leave the cage as there was still an unconscious fighter in the cage, receiving medical treatment. And McGregor went after Goddard like a bellend and then threw punches at a member of the event staff. 

Fast forward just another couple of weeks. Late November. And a story comes out about a "well known sports star" beating up some gangland associate in a Dublin pub. 

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Fucking nuts. I don't know how true this story was but it was just one thing after another around then. The claim was that he'd gone in the pub and punched a middle aged man in the face twice who had links to the Kinahan drug cartel. The rumours swirling were that McGregor was under threat because of this incident and that the Kinahans wanted €900k in compensation from McGregor. 

McGregor's dad, Tony, rubbished the story. 

"That's all nonsense, that is. Absolute nonsense. It's grown legs and it's getting that ridiculous it's become funny. We have nothing to fear here whatsoever. There's no-one after us for anything.

We're a law-abiding family and we've stayed a law-abiding family. As a matter of fact, right now I'm going out to buy my TV licence." - Tony McGregor

:laugh: 

Next thing you know he's being pictured with Rita Ora. 

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Anyway...after a year out, again injured, Khabib was back in December at UFC 218 against Edson Barboza. 

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And once again, another one-sided beatdown. Just 15 minutes of Khabib crushing Barboza. 

Everyone was impressed. Except Conor McGregor. 

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And Khabib certainly had his things to say about McGregor. 

"Now everybody forget about him because he doesn't want real fight. He fight only with 45 year old Floyd Mayweather or marijuana guy who lose 10 times in the UFC, Nate Diaz. These guys talk too much when I'm injured but when I'm healthy, I don't see these guys." - Khabib Nurmagomedov

2018: With still no timetable for McGregor's return, the UFC booked Khabib vs Tony Ferguson for the title for April's UFC 223 PPV in Brooklyn. It was the third time Khabib vs Ferguson had been booked after injuries had bollocksed it twice before. And yet again, it happened here. Ferguson got hurt and pulled out. The UFC scrambled for a replacement and a bunch of names were thrown around. It ended up being New York's own Al Iaquinta.

Amidst all that chaos, this happened...

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McGregor's teammate Artem Lobov had previously made some comments about Khabib in the media. So with Lobov on Khabib's undercard here, they were bound to cross paths. Khabib and his team surrounded Artem backstage and Khabib looked like he was kind of intimidating him. Word got back to McGregor and shit well and truly splattered off the fan. 

He got a load of his goons together, flew out to Brooklyn, and they all attacked the fighter bus with all the event's red corner fighters, including Khabib, on there. 

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Just look at the div. 

Because of his actions, a couple of fighters got glass smashed all over them and their fights got cancelled, a bunch of fights got scrapped. 

Khabib came out unscathed and unfazed. 

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"I am laughing inside. You broke window? Why? You want to talk to me? Send me location. No problem. We have to fight. Send me location. Please, we have to fix this. Me and you. One on one. You want 10 on 10? OK." - Khabib Nurmagomedov 

The next night, Khabib fought Iaquinta..

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And claimed another victim. He took a clear decision and was crowned the new UFC lightweight champion. 

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It was expected that Khabib's first defence would be against McGregor but nothing could be made official until after McGregor's hearing. As expected, McGregor got off with a slap on the wrist and an announcement seemed imminent. 

Over the summer, Khabib attended the World Cup in Russia...

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And McGregor just had to outdo him by not only attending the World Cup as well, he was invited by fucking Putin!

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It wasn't long after that, the day finally came. On 3rd August, Dana White officially announced that Khabib vs McGregor was on for UFC 229. Finally. 

Watch that. It's incredible. 

I can't wait for this fight. Fucking crossing everything that it actually happens. Too much has gone on now, it'd be a crime if something knackers it up. Can't see past a Khabib win myself but if anyone's punchers chance has a legit chance of counting against Khabib, it's Conor McGregor. 

Bloody hell that went even longer than I thought. Quickly touching on the undercard;

 

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Tony Ferguson vs Anthony Pettis is a tremendous fight on paper and could well end up stealing the show. It's obviously here as a back-up incase Khabib or Conor drop off the card for some reason but hopefully that won't be necessary. Ferguson last fought in October 2017, submitting Kevin Lee to win the interim 155lb title. He's been sidelined with a knee injury since but he comes into this one on a 10 fight win streak, which is almost unheard of in the shark infested waters of the lightweight division. As it stands today, I firmly believe that the 3 best lightweights on the planet are Khabib, McGregor and Ferguson. Hopefully they'll all fight each other and we'll find out who's #1. Pettis is the underdog here. He's been very inconsistent of late but he was once considered one of the best pound-for-pound on the entire roster and his most recent performance in July vs Michael Chiesa was the closest he's looked to getting back to that kind of form in a long time. Should be a fantastic fight whatever happens. 

 

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OSP vs Dominick Reyes is an interesting one. OSP is a bit of a gatekeeper at 205 and I don't mean that as a knock. If you're not good he'll certainly find you out. He's won 4 out of his last 5 and all the wins were pretty spectacular finishes. And Reyes is one of the 205 division's new batch of real prospects. He's 9-0 with 8 finishes, all in the first round. 

 

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Derrick Lewis vs Alexander Volkov is a solid clash of heavyweights. Lewis is coming off that snoozer against Ngannou in July. Hopefully this is nothing like that. I can't see Volkov being gun-shy like Ngannou was. He's coming off the biggest win of his career, knocking out Werdum in London in March, so his confidence should be sky high for this. 

 

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Michelle Waterson vs Felice Herrig pits 2 veterans of the women's game. They've both been fighting a long time. Can see this being a really entertaining scrap because both like to mix it up on the feet and the ground and they both have aggressive, attacking styles wherever the fight goes. 

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Sean O'Malley vs Jose Alberto Quinonez could be fun. O'Malley is getting the big push of the UFC machine behind him, coming off Dana's Contender series. He's 10-0 and has looked pretty good so far but I can't warm to him. Something about him just bugs me. Not too familiar with Quinonez but he's 9-2 and won his last 4. 

 

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Sergio Pettis vs Jussier Formiga is a quality little flyweight fight. Really enjoy watching both these guys. Pettis has won 5 of his last 6, beat Joseph Benavidez last time out and took champ Henry Cejudo the distance before that. And I think Formiga is a tad underrated. He's coming off a couple of submission finishes. 

    

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Lina Lansberg vs Yana Kunitskaya is a battle of Cyborg victims but I'm kind of interested to see what they've got in a more even, fair fight where they're not just cannon fodder. 

 

That's it. This never ending post is over.

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KHABIB VS McGREGOR!!!

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31 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

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20 year old Conor at his first live UFC, meeting Chuck Liddell. 

2009: Khabib had a good year. He won 3 more fights, all stoppages, moving to 7-0 overall. McGregor never fought at all in 2009. I think this must've been the period John Kavanagh has talked about before, where Conor went off the rails for a bit, stopped showing up at the gym and was basically living like a bum. The story goes that his mum reached out to Kavanagh and Kavanagh had to come and talk some sense into him. 

Masterpiece of a post Wand. 

McGregor has bizarrely claimed that he was only 16 when that photo of him and Chuck was taken. That would mean that the photo would have been taken at a UFC event in Vegas around 2004/2005 time. The UFC only did shows in Vegas around that period. 

However, I have read since then that the photo might have been taken at UFC 85 (June 2008 in London) or UFC 93 (January 2009 in Dublin. I am going to guess that it was taken at UFC 85. As you estimated, he probably went off the rails in early 2009 and lost interest in MMA for a year or so. 

 

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I'm sure Sean O'Malley is a very strong fighter, given his record. But he looks like a gonky 80s student trying to look hard by getting tattoos. 

Lina Lansberg is rather attractive.

I've said before I think Felice Herrig is fit, but she's a wanker, and Waterson is as fit, not a wanker, and, more importantly, a better and more entertaining fighter whom I would like to see come back from the losses she's had recently.

 

I have nothing more to add, as wand has pretty much done yet another stellar job.

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Hats off to you Wand, you are the best poster on here. I always look forward to your write ups and this is one of the best you have done.

This is essentially a 1 match card but what a Main Event, I am so intrigued to see how this goes. I just hope like others then nobody gets hurt before the fight.

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3'48" - 3'58" in that promo video, with Joey Diaz talking about how organisations fall? ...that's the best 10" in any sports promo you'll ever see. That's a spin on this that no one's looking at, yet it's the most compelling. That 10" alone gave me all the goosebumps. I'm in.

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Second biggest gate in UFC history behind 205, which was the first New York show and at MSG, they run Vegas a lot too, not sold out but won't do $17 million but has surpassed 200 $10 million (biggest in Vegas show) & the first stadium show in Toronto $12 million and they've not started really promoting yet.

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Ridiculously good post, Wand.

Where is everyone ranking this fight in terms of grandeur? Is it the biggest UFC fight in history? I think it might be for me.

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I was hyped for this fight but after that write up i don't think I can sleep! Incredible write up!

 

This fight is like the Aldo v McGregor fight in that I just can't work out who i think is going to win. It comes down to the first round for me, who starts strongest, if McGregor can stop the take down I think he will go on to win it but if Connor finds himself on his back within 60 seconds it will be a long and painful night for him.

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My lack of attention span usually means i skip anything more than two paras. But you had me at hello there, wand! Thanks, great stuff.. 

Bring on this fucking fight. Looking at the odds the bookies are paying 1.50 or 1/2 or so odds on Khabib, and 2.50 for McGregor. 

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