A moment of clarity stopped Daniel Cormier from using his fists during UFC 229 brawl

UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier was cage-side when all hell broke loose following the conclusion of UFC 229’s main event fight between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Immediately after forcing Conor McGregor to tapout in the fourth-round with a neck crank, “The Eagle” proceeded to leap out of the octagon in an attempt to attack the Irish stars teammate Dillon Danis.

Khabib undisciplined actions caused brawls to ensue both inside and outside of the octagon.

Current UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier (21-1 MMA) almost got caught up in all of the excitement, but thankfully a moment of clarity prevented “DC” from using his fists during the now infamous post-fight brawl between Team Khabib and Team McGregor at UFC 229.

“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, what am I thinking?’” Cormier told reporters (as transcribed by MMAJunkie).

Instead of jumping in and throwing fists, Daniel Cormier attempted to defuse the situation.

“(Khabib is) going crazy,” Cormier said. “It was the funniest (expletive) I’ve ever seen. I’ll admit this. For me, it sucks that it was in front of all these people, but it was a whole bunch of dudes just kind of fighting and acting crazy. It was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ It’s like every city in every country every Saturday in some street bar – or a club – this is going on. It just happened between a whole bunch of Russian guys and a bunch of Irish guys in front of millions of people. So for me, I had the separate the idea that I was laughing to going, ‘Guys, we are probably in front of the biggest viewership we’ve ever had.’”

“DC” managed to get within arms reach of his longtime friend and teammate Khabib Nurmagomedov, who he said was “going crazy”, and attempted to calm down the undefeated Russian champion.

“(UFC security guards) have Khabib,” Cormier said. “He sees me (and says), ‘This is my captain. Let him talk to me.’ I said, ‘Yo.’ He goes, ‘What?’ I go, ‘What the (expletive) is going on? What are you doing?’

“He goes, ‘I want my belt.’ I go, ‘OK, OK, just relax.’ He goes, ‘Just give me my belt.’ So I go, ‘Guys, let’s just take him back in the cage, we’ll get his belt, and we’ll get out of here.’”

When finally backstage, Daniel Cormier asked Khabib Nurmagomedov what the desired outcome was from his UFC 229 post-fight antics.

“So what was the desired outcome there?” Cormier recalled asking Nurmagomedov. “Did you want to step on his head? Like, what did you want to do? What, in your mind, were you wanting to accomplish? Were you going to drop kick him? Were you going to double-kick him? What were you doing?”

According to the current UFC heavyweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov replied, “Brother, I don’t know. I lose my mind.”