The only attempt that failed more spectacularly than Conor McGregor’s shot at winning back his lightweight championship belt Saturday night at UFC 229 was Khabib Nurmagomedov’s bid at a sincere apology for sparking a post-fight brawl at T-Mobile Arena.
More than two hours after Nurmagomedov tarnished his fourth-round submission victory over McGregor by leaping out of the cage to confront one of his opponent’s corner men, he gave a three-minute statement that failed to account for his actions. Nurmagomedov went with the infamous, “sorry…but,” defense at a media conference before abruptly ignoring any more questions, putting on his papakha hat, picking up his belt and leaving.