Saturday night’s UFC 229 event, from the start of the show to the finish of the main event, was looking like one of the best days in the history of the company. Until it wasn’t.
With what was likely the largest audience ever watching the UFC’s product at one time, performances by Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, and Derrick Lewis should have been the talk of the sports world the next day.
Instead, the narrative of the show centered around the brawl that ended it — the visual of Nurmagomedov climbing the cage and going after Dillon Danis in McGregor’s corner, of punches being thrown inside the cage, including by Conor McGregor, as well as members of Nurmagomedov’s team, and Dana White refusing to strap the lightweight title belt on Nurmagomedov for fear of a riot.