(Video) Were Islam Makhachev & Magomedov justified in suckerpunching Dillon Danis?

Benny A. King

Following Jorge Masvidal’s alleged assault on Colby Covington, fans are questioning the morality of a fighter “sucker punching” someone.

The “BMF” champion Jorge Masvidal is facing battery charges after he  reportedly ambushed and  sucker-punched his longtime rival Colby Covington.

Jorge’s actions have been thoroughly criticized by MMA fans. The general consensus is that Jorge was in the wrong for having gotten into an altercation outside of the cage, especially after the actual bout with Colby went the distance.

This, then raised the question: “should other sucker punches in MMA also have been criticized in the past?”.

Back at UFC 229, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor had one of the biggest clashes in MMA history. The two shared one of the nastiest rivalries in the history of the sport. Khabib once surrounded one of Conor’s teammates in order to slap him, and in retaliation, Conor and his entourage threw a dolly at the UFC bus that Khabib was in shattering the windows and injuring several other athletes in process.

Khabib out-performed McGregor during the fight. After dominating the Irishman for the entirety of the fight “The Eagle” submitted him the fourth round with a neck crank.

Right as he was done with McGregor, Khabib jumped the cage and went on to assault Conor’s teammate Dillon Danis. That resulted in an all-out brawl between the two fighter’s teams that carried on inside and outside the cage.

After the action was apparent under control, Khabib’s teammates Islam Makhachev and Rizvan Magomedov threw hard punches to the back of the head of the unaware Dillon Danis.

In a later tweet, Dillon called the two fighters “cowards” for sucker-punching him.

McGregor was also sucker punched in the process.

 

Nurmagomedov and McGregor’s rivalry resulted in the best-selling PPV in the history of MMA. The card set the record for the highest ever mixed martial arts attendance and live gate in Nevada and the record for biggest MMA pay-per-view event, with 2.4 million buys in the United States.