The ‘Mystic Man’ Can’t Soar Like ‘The Eagle’

Author: Skyla Burrell

Who is the Mystic Man and what’s that got to do with The Eagle? Welcome to the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) kids. Connor McGregor A.K.A 'The Mystic Man' recently took on Khabib Nurmagomedov A.K.A 'The Eagle' earlier this month. From the title of the article I’m sure you can venture a guess at the outcome.

For those like myself, not so familiar with the UFC, here are the CliffsNotes. The Ultimate Fighting Championship is actually a mixed martial arts promotion company (a William Morris child). It is the largest MMA promotion company in the world. So, the UFC is not a style of fighting, it’s the promoter of the fighting while MMA (mixed martial arts) is the style. The UFC was established in 1993 and today is a multi-billion dollar business.

As with most fights of any kind, whether it’s on the schoolyard or the UFC ring, there is a lot of trash talking leading up to the big event, and this fight was certainly no exception. In this case, the not so witty banter continued for weeks leading up to the fight. literally even a chair was thrown in for good measure when McGregor hurled one at Nurmagomedov’s bus, resulting in a plea of guilty to disorderly conduct and a ton of bad blood which comes into play later in this tale.

UFC 229 was held at the T-Mobile Arena in where else but, Las Vegas, on 6th October 2018. McGregor had a record going into the fight of 21-4-0 while Nurmagomedov had a perfect record of 27-0-0. It had been almost 2 years for McGregor without an MMA fight, while Nurmagomedov was the reigning undisputed UFC Lightweight Champion. The battle lasted four rounds and Nurmagomedov retained his UFC lightweight champion status.

That's when it all went off the rails, as the saying goes, as Nurmagomedov leaped out of the Octagon cage and attacked a McGregor corner man and then just to round out the epic show of bad sportsmanship, a few of Nurmagomedov's teammates rushed the cage to attack McGregor. Needless to say, madness came a-calling, and both fighters, in the end, were escorted out by security, the Eagle managing to completely tarnish his well-deserved win.

Nevada does not take kindly to outsiders messing things up and the Nevada State Athletic Commission is set to make their rulings on this debacle sometime in the first part of November, 2018 on both McGregor and Nurmagomedov. One fighter has had 100% of his 2 million in prize money held by the commission. Any guesses as to which one? The other is not out of the woods yet either, nor are any of the other participants in the ‘fight after the fight’.

In the end though, the promoters are laughing all the way to bank as UFC 229 takes its place in history as the highest selling fight in Ultimate Fighting Championship history.