Conor McGregor insists he was beating Khabib before getting submitted at UFC 229

Adam Miller

McGregor is becoming somewhat of a pioneer of revised MMA history in the late days of his career.

McGregor became a target of criticism following a series of lackluster performances in the cage. The brunt of the criticism is targeted towards his longtime team Straightblast Gym in Ireland and head coach John Kavanagh.

Before he was submitted in their exciting clash, McGregor felt he had the upper hand. The Irish athlete was defeated in the fourth round after he displayed an inability to stop Nurmagomedov’s ground game.

In fact, McGregor himself shared about the unsavory tactics that are illegal in MMA and which he used to his benefit – and still lost the clash. 

Khabib Nurmagomdeov has already announced his retirement from mixed martial arts with a record of 29-0. However, McGregor believes he was on track to win after evaluating each round.

In response to a Twitter comment that McGregor had been “mauled” by Khabib, he said:

“I won round one. Out struck him three to one here.”

“Elbows, knees, clatters. He held on entire round. Round two he won. This round had the kimura attempt you speak of.”

“I kneed him full force into his eye socket here and broke the grip fully. A lovely shot! I won three also and four up until the trip.”

Then he continued: “Round 1’s mine. Out struck 3-1. Elbow, knees, clatters! He held on.”

“Two is his but I land multiple knees. One from standing after the overhand, and one from bottom into the eye socket at kimura attempt.

“Not a scratch end of round also. I won round three, and four until the trip.”

The former two division champion also uploaded a photo of himself after the contest with the caption: “Ye, not a scratch. Relaxing before I bounced up and bet his brother and his cousin round.”

A rematch was rumored to be in the works but Nurmagomedov wasn’t interested even prior to his father’s passing and retirement.

When McGregor made a return to the cage, Dustin Poirier ended up knocking him out. In their third bout McGregor famously crushed his leg and the event was called a TKO for Poirier.