UFC 229: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Conor McGregor - Sunday October 7th 3am BST

MMA is a brutal sport where athletes are locked inside a cage to engage in combat against one another, so it's no surprise that there is often bad blood and rivalries that spill over outside of the cage sometimes. Over the years there has been many but this latest one between Khabib Numagomedov and Conor McGregor seems to have taken things to another level. What started as a regular MMA rivalry between 2 competitors in the same weight class erupted when last April Khabib and his team cornered a close friend of McGregor backstage during the build-up for UFC223. In retaliation, McGregor and his team attacked a bus containing Khabib and a number of uninvolved fighters and coaches injuring a few of them and leading his arrest. From that moment on it was just a matter of where and when they would eventually fight to settle this feud and eventually the date was set and the pair will meet this weekend in Las Vegas to fight for the lightweight title.

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They recently came face to face at a press conference and their insults went beyond the normal levels of MMA rivalry as personal attacks to family members, comments towards religion and even politics was all brought up. There were also accusations made about Khabibs agent as the situation remained hostile. UFC president Dana White described it afterwards as the darkest press conference he's ever seen. There is still a full week of media obligations for them to get through and another press conference so there could be more fireworks still to come ahead of the fight.

While the drama and emotion between the fighters add a level of excitement to the event that isn't the only thing that makes this fight so interesting. If you ignore all of that and just look at the two competitors what you will find are two of the most elite fighters in one of the toughest divisions in the sport. Conor McGregor is the former champion who never actually lost the title, but was stripped for being inactive while he pursued other interests in a different sport. He tore his way through the featherweight division and then ended the 10-year reign of one of the all-time greats Jose Aldo with a single punch in 13 seconds. Following that he then moved up to lightweight to take on Eddie Alvarez and became the first ever person to hold 2 titles in separate weight classes at the same time. Then you have the current champion Khabib Nurmagomedov who has the longest active win streak in the company, he has dominated pretty much everyone he's ever faced and not only has he remained undefeated with a 26-0 record but he has never even lost a round during a fight.

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The real intriguing thing about the fight, they are 2 of the best at what they do. The pressure Khabib puts his opponents under, his relentless takedown and grappling ability are unrivalled. Nobody has been able to deal with it and so far nobody has really been able to stop him from closing in, pulling them down to the ground and dismantling them. He's finished 16 fights in his career with 8 knockouts and submissions each and 10 of his fights have gone the distance, but all have been fairly dominant. He does have a major weakness however, that is while on the feet he is easy for opponents to hit as he seems to lack even basic striking defence. Against Michael Johnson, he took a number of strikes and even looked hurt for a moment in the opening 2 minutes of the fight before he eventually got the fight to the ground where he went on to dominate. While this is the clearest example it isn't the only one, through his whole UFC career Khabib has had this weakness where he would get hit, but nobody has been able to hurt him enough before he got his hands on him and got them down. There was evidence of him being aware of this flaw in his game during his last fight with Al Iaquinta, once he had a sufficient lead on the judge's scorecard Khabib seemed to try and engage in a striking contest with Al. However, there were still many major flaws in his striking offence and defence that have caused many to question what would happen if he was to fight one of the divisions top strikers.

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It just so happens that Khabib's major weakness is Conor Mcgregor's greatest strength. Conor is one of the most elite strikers in the whole sport. He has great kicks and throws a variety of techniques but everything he does is centred around one of the most dangerous weapons in the sport, his left hand. After getting knocked out by Conor, Jose Aldo took some bombs from Jeremy Stephens. Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez went on to have wars with each other as well as Justin Gaethje where they displayed incredible toughness and durability. Looking at those fights really displays the power Conor possesses as he dispatched those opponents with relative ease. Just like Khabib though, Conor has some glaring holes in his game and much like how Conor's greatest strength is Khabibs main weakness it is grappling and cardio that have been Conor's downfall in the past. Against Chad Mendes he was taken down with ease and seemed to have no answer while down on the ground or any way to get back to his feet, then against Nate Diaz when it went to the ground Conor struggled to deal with him and was submitted. This has raised the question about how Conor will cope with Khabib, who many people believe will get Conor down and take this fight to the ground.

This has made for an interesting prospect of one of the worlds greatest grapplers facing one of the worlds greatest strikers with the general consensus that Khabib will win if he can avoid the strikes and take Conor down. But Conor will win if he can catch Khabib on his approach and knock him out before he gets close to grabbing hold. I personally believe it will be a lot more competitive than that and feel like both fighters have made significant efforts to shore up the weaknesses in their game. Khabib already displayed that he is working on his striking in his last fight and no doubt continued with that in preparation for this one. Since Conor's cardio and grappling weaknesses were exposed against Diaz he got involved in a new conditioning program and brought in the extremely talented BJJ player Dillon Danis as a training partner to work on his grappling.

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Another big factor, and one which I believe could become the thing that most impacts who will win this fight is how they deal with the emotion and pressure that they will both be under during the fight. Tensions are really high for this one and if they carry that into the cage is can not only affect them mentally but also physically too. This is what gives McGregor a huge advantage in my opinion, he has already displayed the ability to remain calm and collected in these moments. His fight against Jose Aldo had one of the longest and wildest buildups of any fight in history. Aldo was definitely affected and it caused him to rush in and lead to Conor taking him out in record time. Then against Nate Diaz in the rematch, in his fight against Alverez and also his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather we have seen Conor face insurmountable pressure and for the most part be completely unaffected. So while Conor does seem to have lost the plot as he performs his antics at the press conferences I have no doubt that he will step into the cage ice cold and 100% composed. Khabib has not faced the same kind of pressures and has never had an emotional rivalry with his opponent like he has with Conor, in interviews he has done he has admitted to being emotional.

It's an intriguing fight and I cannot wait to see it go down next weekend. As well as that main event there are some other really exciting fights that will be well worth staying up until the early hours for. The co-main event between Tony Ferguson and Anthony Pettis has all the makings to be a fight of the year candidate. Below are my predictions for the event.

PREDICTIONS

Khabib Nurmagomedov V Conor McGregor - McGregor to win - R2 Knockout

Tony Ferguson V Anthony Pettis - Ferguson to win - Decision

Ovince Saint Preux V Dominick Reyes - Reyes to win - R1 Knockout

Derrick Lewis V Alexander Volkov - Volkov to win - R2 Knockout

Michelle Waterson V Felice Herrig - Herrig to win - Decision