Khabib Nurmagomedov is unbeaten in his MMA career (Getty)
Tempers flared between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson as the UFC 249 press conference took place.
Khabib will defend his UFC Lightweight title against Ferguson, and both men seemed up for the clash.
However, things got a little heated when Ferguson claimed he could beat Khabib in a street fight.
The champion then kicked Ferguson’s interim UFC Lightweight belt off the stage too and was miffed at some of the exchanges from the conference.
After cooling down a bit, the Russian star sat down with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto and was asked why he got so irked in the press conference:
“Honestly, when I go to the press conference, I want to be nice. I don’t want to go crazy but when he began to talk about the street fight, I went a little bit crazy.
“Because, this guy never fight on street. What are you talking about? I have a lot of fights on streets. American, you cannot fight on street.
“I grew up on Dagestan, mountain, every day I fight in street. You talk about street fight.”
Okamoto further asked about this being a major trigger point for the champion, and Khabib was more than happen to speak out about the ‘street fight’:
“Because people don’t understand. Maybe people think I am like him [Ferguson] from America. I am not from America.
“I am from Dagestan. We fight all the time here. In school, in gym, I have a lot of fights there. And when he talk about street fight, I don’t understand. This guy has never fought on streets.”
Khabib was also asked if this was the first time he got emotional in a press conference but the champion swatted such accusations away.
The Russian went on to claim that he goes full-on when he gets emotional, and this was far from it.
Khabib finished by saying a street fight is completely different to a one in the Octagon, where there are judges.
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