OREANDA-NEWS. Former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov admitted that he could have killed his long-time rival, Irishman Conor McGregor, during their fight in the octagon. This could have happened if the referee Herb Dean had not intervened in time. The fighter told about this in an interview for the iAmTheBay YouTube channel.

«Imagine what would have happened if Herb Dean hadn't been there. Conor would have died. He knocked, but I held him tight. Herb Dean had to pull it away from me with a jerk», Nurmagomedov recalled.

He is talking about the fight of 2018, in which the Russian defeated the Irishman with a painful reception in the fourth round. During his entire career in martial arts, Khabib Nurmagomedov has not lost a single fight, won 29 times. The first match of the Russian fighter in the UFC dates back to 2012: for 9 years, he won the octagon 13 times in a row.

Former UFC champion Georges Saint-Pierre believes that the Conor McGregor is still able to successfully return to the fights. «Conor is still young. But every fighter reacts to age in different ways. For a fighter, this is his mileage. I think Conor can still come back, but there are other fighters for whom there is no way back, because we know that their best days are in the past», said Saint-Pierre.