Khabib Nurmagomedov describes the ‘very good feeling’ of punching Conor McGregor in the face

After months and months of venomous trash talk, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor finally got the chance to step into the cage together back in October, when they battled for the UFC lightweight belt in the main event of UFC 229.

In the end, Nurmagomedov would earn a decisive victory over McGregor, stopping him via submission in the fourth-round — but not before pummelling him with plenty of ground strikes and even dropping him with a punch during a stand-up exchange.

Given the amount of trash talk Conor McGregor unleashed ahead of this fight, it should come as no surprise that Khabib Nurmagomedov greatly enjoyed the experience of punching him.

The lightweight champ opened up on his enjoyment of punching Conor McGregor during a recent Q&A session in Melbourne, Australia.

“I enjoyed this, when I punched his face. This is a very good feeling, believe me, when someone talks sh-t all the time,” Nurmagomedov said (transcript via Bloody Elbow). “Every time I punched his face, I enjoyed. I asked him, ‘Hey, let’s talk.’ But at the end of the second or third round, he said ‘This is just business.’ He tried to make me relax.”

“This is not sparring session. We’re gonna keep going, you know,” he continued. “Maybe he don’t understand my English, I think.”

Unfortunately, the violence continued after Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor stopped fighting, as several members of their respective teams were involved in a chaotic, post-fight brawl.

Nurmagomedov also discussed this wild scene.

“I lost control a little bit,” he said. “We talk with father before the fight, (and he said) ‘We have to be relaxed, don’t listen to him. Just do your thing.’ And when my father tried to smash me (after the brawl), I told him, ‘Hey, we didn’t talk about after the fight. We only talked about before the fight, so what are we gonna do?’

“But it is what is, it’s what’s happened.”

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 1/23/2019.