UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov explains why he thinks Conor McGregor sends controversial tweets as former UFC champion talks to Mike Tyson about crass message sent mocking the death of his father

The Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor rivalry has always been an intense one, but the latter took things too far last week.

In the aftermath of Dustin Poirer’s victory over McGregor at UFC 264, Khabib tweeted: “Good always defeats evil. Very happy for Dustin Poirier. I hope you will get the [lightweight] belt end of the year.”

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In a delayed response, McGregor tweeted and then subsequently deleted: “Covid is good and father is evil?”

This appeared to be a reference to Khabib's late father, Abdulmanap, who died in the summer of 2020 due to COVID-19 complications which is what ultimately drove his decision to retire from the sport.

Sitting down with Mike Tyson and Henry Cejudo on the Hot Boxin’ podcast, The Eagle was asked about his reaction to McGregor’s tweet, but first, about his father’s willingness to forgive McGregor while he was alive.

“My dad was different about this kind of situation. His heart was so clean,” Khabib explained.

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“When [McGregor] talk about this, you know, only evil can talk about your father, wife, kids, religion. 

“If you’re normal, you’re never going to talk about this stuff. For me, I think he post this tweet after drinking too much or something. He always deletes his tweets. 

“The next day when he becomes normal life, he’s like ‘oh what I did’ and he deletes. That’s my opinion on what he does, all the time.”

When Cejudo asked Tyson if McGregor had gone too far, Tyson suggested that anything goes while you’re promoting a fight, even though McGregor and Khabib have only fought once, in 2018.

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“When you’re promoting a fight, anything thing goes,” Tyson said, as proven by Iron Mike talking about eating Lennox Lewis’s kids once upon a time.

“I agree, when you’re promoting a fight,” Khabib replied before bringing up his rivals legal troubles.

“But when someone is not with us, he’s not even alive, I don’t think… this shows how what you have inside, how guilty you are. 

“This shows you when you’re one of the best in the world and then you punch a 70-year-old man, this shows your heart. This shows who you are inside. How guilty you are. 

“When you have parents and you have kids, how can you show yourself like this? I don’t understand why his close people don’t tell him like ‘hey, what’s going on?’”

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Speaking of the hatred between McGregor and himself, Khabib says he’s always been able to control his emotions and that’s how he can deal with McGregor’s crass digs.

“One of the biggest reasons I became a champion is because of my mental part. How I can control my emotions. I think I can control anything. Anything happens with me in the world, I can control this. I can handle this. 

“When I was going to fight [McGregor] my coach would tell me ‘hey, you have to focus,’ and I would say, I am focused. He would say ‘you want to call home, your friends,’ and I’d say no, I’m good.

“I’d say coach, don’t worry. Everything is good, I’m good, I’m relaxed and when the time comes, I’m going to show you,” he continued.

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So what has gone wrong with McGregor? The Notorious has just one win since becoming double champion five years ago, but he’s made a boatload of money.

Khabib, who retired a pristine 29-0 in MMA, believes it’s the company he keeps that has let him down.

“Some people when they become rich and famous, they lose real people around them,” he said.

“They lose them. Because real people who love, they’re always going to tell you true. But fake people, they always say ‘you good, you good.’

"They never say to you nothing because they don’t want to upset you and lose this comfortable friend. 

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“But real people, they don’t care about this. They were with you before you were famous and rich, they don’t care about your money and fame, they just love you. And when they say to you what’s true, you don’t like it because of your ego. 

“He lost a lot of people around him. It’s just my opinion, I don’t think he has the people who was with him before he was champion. Everybody needs someone who can remind you ‘hey, this is bad, this is good’ - this is life.”

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