10 UFC Fights That Happened Outside Of The Octagon
For those moments when you simply cannot find the words...
When signing up to fight another human being, a certain amount of animosity towards said individual is to be expected.
It isn’t always a given, Dustin Poirier and Khabib Nurmagomedov can attest to taking part in a respectable contest at UFC 242. Nurmagomedov even going as far as to wear his adversary's shirt after the bout and auctioning off the clothing, with all proceedings going to Poirier's charity, The Good Fight Foundation.
That match very much falls into the category of one off, as battles in the octagon (the hotly anticipated ones) tend to involve heated exchanges both inside and outside the cage.
When a verbal rivalry gets physical, that's when the fans truly begin to engage.
Press conferences tend to house their fair share of physical skirmishes, yet that doesn't make those incidents exclusive. Fighters are a wild bunch and, if provoked, will strike in a parking lot, immediately after a sanctioned fight or even on a reality TV show.
All's fair in love and war and these warriors aren't prepared to wait until they're in the octagon to prove it.
10. Conor McGregor Vs Khabib Nurmagomedov (Part 1: In A Car Park)
You may not have heard, but Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov don't really get on.
Why, you ask? Well, it all stems back to April 2015, when Nurmagomedov stated how he wanted to 'smash' the Notorious one, who hadn't even won the Lightweight title at this point.
A year later, the two were spotted screaming at each other backstage at the UFC 205 weigh-ins.
In April 2018, after the two had been off exploring different ventures (winning Lightweight titles and challenging Floyd Mayweather to a boxing match) they eventually ended up back in each other's orbit thanks to Khabib and his entourage cornering Artem Lobov over his comments on The Eagle pulling out of fights.
This altercation angered the Irishman -a friend of Lobov - and he set his sights on Khabib two days later, with a now infamous attack on a bus carrying Nurmagomedov, his team and a host of other UFC fighters in the Barclays Center car park.
When Khabib refused to leave the bus, McGregor took it upon himself to hurl a hand trolley through one of the bus windows.
Two other fighters were injured from the attack and a warrant was issued for McGregor's arrest.
This attack would set up the biggest fight in UFC history...but more on that later...