Conor McGregor coach hopes NSAC is lenient on Nurmagomedov, can ‘understand his reaction’

On Saturday night, in the main event of the massive UFC 229 card, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov defended his title with a fourth-round submission win over former UFC lightweight and featherweight champ Conor McGregor. Unfortunately, however, that’s not where the violence ended.

Moments after the fight came to a close, Khabib Nurmagomedov vaulted out of the cage and attacked Conor McGregor’s training partner Dillon Danis, which sparked a massive brawl between his and McGregor’s teams. The chaos swirled inside and outside of the cage, and it was several minutes before it was completely under control.

Given these events, you might expect Conor McGregor’s long-time coach John Kavanagh to harbor a bit of a grudge against Nurmagomedov and his compatriots. Yet this is not the case.

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience on Monday, Coach Kavanagh gave his take on the melee that followed Nurmagomedov’s defeat of his star pupil Conor McGregor. Apparently, he’s hoping the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) is lenient when handing Nurmagomedov his punishment — not just because he hopes McGregor will have the opportunity for a rematch with the champ, but because he likes watching the champ fight, and he understands why he why he acted the way he did.

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“I hope they’re lenient on him [Khabib], not just so we can get a rematch,” John Kavanagh told Joe Rogan on the show. “I love watching him fight.”

“I can stretch myself to understand his reaction… He jumped over the cage, it’s not the end of the world”

What do you think of John Kavanagh’s assessment of the wild brawl that followed Khabib Nurmagomedov’s defeat of Conor McGregor?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 10/8/2018.