The fight of strangers

Preparations for the fight of the "clown" McGregor and the "faithful" Nurmagomedov overshadowed everything that could happen in the ring

The coming in Las Vegas fight Khabib Nurmagomedov-Konor McGregor promises to become the most cash register in the history of mixed martial arts (MMA-Mixed Martial Arts). I am completely uninteresting, will smear the opponent’s habib on the flooring of the cell, or Conor, as promised, will roll his head along the octagon (this is the same cage, only the classic 8-angle). I generally do not actively like the lesson that two lightweights and the most popular MMA fighter in the world have chosen. But millions of people on the whole planet will follow the battle, you can’t get away from this fact. The promotion, which is almost the main part of the preparation of any cult match, has surpassed the already free standards in the field of mixed martial arts. No wonder - such different figures did not go out against each other in the cage. The jester of the pea of ​​the slaughter of the Irish spill against the defender of Islamic values ​​- this one promised to carve sparks long before the start of the battle.

The MMA star rose in the mid-90s of the last century, the roots go deep into centuries, the main organization-promoter is called “Absolute Fighting Championship” (the English abbreviation UFC), in Russia mixed martial arts were recognized as an independent sport in 2012, but to consider this action to the full sports-the personal business of everyone. In my conservative opinion, sports elements are contained there, but nothing more. Yes, there are certain rules, you can’t poke and break your fingers in the eyes, there are few deaths immediately after the battle, there are fewer concussions than in boxing, but no matter how you protect this type of “art”, pictures of the disfigured physiognomies speak more about MMA than all arguments.

For me, a cultivated, but still a bloody fight with an unspoken motto of the “deceitful” sport is not. But the popularity of MMA is growing by the day, but by the hour and in the world and in Russia - on the Match channel, this is generally the second spectacle after football. I’m afraid that this is not just a fashion - what is happening marks the desire of a significant part of mankind to finally return during the bloody Roman entertainment.

Probably, it is not enough for the day, when the thousandth crowds will be indicated with the thumb, leave the defeated opponent or not. And millions of the screens will vote by pressing the button.

Of course, “everything is not a war”, even if the earthwear energy finds at least such a way out, but, I repeat, you can’t lure me in the T-MOBIL arena. And with all the desire not to get there - tickets for the battle "Habib against Conor" scattered instantly. Moreover, it turns out that Khabib Nurmagomedov, judging by the number of subscribers of his account (almost 5 million), is the most popular athlete of Russia, and his opponent, who has five times more subscribers, is generally one of the most popular athletes in the world.

This only means that MMA catching up, and somewhere even overtakes a much more intelligent (for all brutality) and an advanced predecessor, as a professional box. Boxing, by the way, - or rather, according to the terms adopted in MMA, the shock technique is the horse of the abandoned Irish Conor McGregor (24 fights - 21 victories, mainly by knockout). He took his first title in a half-lightweight weight three years ago, sending Jose Alda to the floor at the 13th second (!) Fight. A year ago, the failed plumber was not afraid to reach the ring against the Veliky Floyd Mayweather and even withstood ten rounds according to the rules of boxing, earned 30 million dollars on this. The Mayweather fell 100 million, and the profitability of an unusual battle only lost the battle of Mayweather -Pakyao.

The Great, by the way, recently praised his opponent, calling him a real warrior. And he even invited him to practice. McGregor had to die with happiness, but he just sent a benefactor away. Which was fully consistent with the nickname that had long been fixed behind him - the notorious.

Khabib Nurmagomedov has another nickname - an eagle. Sometimes added - Dagestan eagle. And he has no such impressive background as Conor. He just has 26 battles - 26 victories. Conor hits in a rack (including with his feet), and Khabib strangles in the stalls. Those who came across him not to live, because the hobsters of the eagle are a struggle. He is generally a two-time world sambo fighting champion, the champion of Eurasia in hand-to-hand combat, the European champion in Pankration, and for something completely ugly.

If I had to simply describe such different sports virtues of both, there would be no price of two cult figures. But rivalry in the cage is only part of a large game. Who will beat whom, of course, is important for fans. But the world has already enjoyed what the fighters distinguished themselves before the fight. Here, of course, Conor became a newcomer.

... If McGregor were a politician, he would compete with Vladimir Zhirinovsky himself, and in some ways he would have surpassed the unforgettable Wolfych. Because he attacks the future enemy throughout the front, searches and beats in the most vulnerable places, jerks the facts and generally costs without facts, freely resorts to abnormitative vocabulary, does not spare neither relatives, nor friends, and in this art, the sadly famous, perhaps, are no equal. There was such a popular view of the struggle of Vale-Tudo (“everything is allowed” from Portuguese), so for McGregor it is the usual style of all pre-match training.

A native of Dublin has long played a bad guy and even became him. Well, almost became. Especially when in the career of the first owner of the championship title in two weight categories, light and fifty, a break came. McGregor spent the last battle in MMA format almost two years ago. But from the first lanes of sports publications did not disappear. The headlines said for themselves: “McGregor beat a member of the drug cartel in the Dublin pub”, “Conor threatens the mafia”, “McGregor attacked the arbitration”, “McGregor was arrested in New York”, “McGregor received five days of public work”, and this is far from the entire list of exploits of the exemplary family in months of forced idleness.

Yes, he was bored, so Conor entertained himself. From the mafia, according to rumors, I had to swim. The scandal with the referee was furious. Even the UFC president was tired of the YFC president, but in show business, everything that is not deadly goes to the box office. It is impossible to come up better than a scandal.

The April publication of Conor in New York was preceded by the title battle of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Al Yakvinta. They should have disputed just a belt belonging to McGregor, but at that moment the champion had already lost the title due to downtime. Conor was already offended by Khabib as a probable and false, in his opinion, successor. And then, as a gift, the Dagestan offended in the lobby of the hotel of a friend of Conor, the Russian Irish and also the UFC fighter Artem Lobov. Lobov received a slap for the fact that he called Habib in an interview, excuse me, “Silmarine”. Founding this by the fact that Conor goes into the battle even lame, and Khabib refused to fight for health reasons six times: “Habibu to Conor, as before China!” The skirmish of the two barricades of Chechen fighters from the teams of Conor and Habib, who appeared on different sides, added oil to the fire.

McGregor reacted instantly-he flew to New York and went with the boys to deal with the Nurmagomedov team. Conor demanded satsisfacies right in the Barclay Center parking lot, trying to call Habib from the bus to the battle. When this failed, the trolley that appeared nearby flew into the glass. It was already too much. The video of the incident circled the whole world, one fighter had to withdraw from the tournament because of the cuts, Lobov was shot as an accomplice in a showdown, Khabib Fight won and became the first Russian champion in the main fighting format, and McGregor, along with the five days, received a strong “bus” trump card. The phrase “a real Chechen will never follow the orders of the Dagestan” was clearly provocative, as well as the collision with the father of Khabib Abdulmanal Nurmagomedov. The sadly famous called him a coward, "who licks his ass to the dictator Kadyrov."

The "battle of the century" has not yet smelled. Rather, it smelled, but few believed that everything would be organized so quickly. The scandal helped, it was necessary to bake the pies while the bake was hot. In early August, McGregor received a chance to regain his “illegally selected” belt. And infused.

... Before moving on to a brief presentation, probably the most elusive press conference in the history of MMA with the participation of the champion and the applicant, it is worth devoting several lines and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Against the Shutovsky background of McGregor, he, of course, is a model of laconic masculinity, but Khabiba also entered the battle in the process of preparation. True, this did not have a relationship directly to the fight, but was related to the personality and views of the Russian “Athlete Number one”.

It all started with an innocent champion’s replicas about the abolition of concerts of the famous Penza rapper Egor Creed in Makhachkala: “Loss is small.” I must say that Khabib Nurmagomedov has many admirers among the show business elite. The reaction of the popular fighter surprised a lot of the famous singer and showman Timati, under whose patronage concerts were supposed to take place. At the request to clarify his position on Khabib Instagram, a shocking entry appeared, which is little inferior to ordinary vocabulary among the MMA: “Each creature will answer for its words, I just do not have up to you ... For the future of our republic, we and only we, and not all sorts of roosters, who, they say, want something.”

Of course, Dagestan, and not only Dagestan, stood up by a mountain by the idol and a fighter with the "cocks". As one of Habib's friends wrote, “we will always be happy with guests. But not to those who came to impose the debauchery of our youth ... ” The position was indicated quite clearly, which caused a short but stormy discussion. The final phrases of Timati’s answer (“God is a judge to you. I had a better opinion about you. Good luck in your upcoming battle”) Passion was not reassured.

I repent, unfamiliar with the work of Yegor Creed. And I have a very vague idea of ​​what Timati is famous for. Probably, they did not calculate something with concerts in the republic, where the religious beginning, to put it mildly, is not always in Lada with secular, where Russian laws in the conflict with the mentality and where there are enough problems and, in addition to the threat of “debauchery”, which carries with itself, not to say, not white and fluffy Russian pop. The wild polemic in the spirit of “more morally is to beat the lying to blood or sing about“ kiss me everywhere ”naturally could not end with the reconciliation of the parties.

It would be better if the exemplary champion and the idol of millions expressed his position more carefully, and the righteous anger would have turned to the address familiar. Moreover, the time has come to somehow answer the opponent, who does not climb into his pocket for a word.

... During the joint press conference held in New York, McGregor surpassed himself. He called Khabib a “rat”, “insignificance”, “stupid animals”, promised to “break on the air”, “break a glass jaw” and “make a hole with a hole”. Siding sponsor Ziyavudin Magomedov, whom “Vladimir Putin planted for stealing money from the Russians,” accused the heap of disrespect of the champion ... Besides, Putin - after the photograph with the president of Russia with the President of Russia. What was happening seemed nonsense, but thousands of people watched this action on Broadway on a large screen.

They could get into the hall by buying two bottles of whiskey their own production of Conor McGregor. I did not convince whiskey. In the midst of a press conference in the hands of the showman dressed in a purple checkered costume a flask with a drink appeared, they immediately brought glasses, and the author suddenly wanted to drink with an opponent. Habib, by the way, was performed on this day for 30 years. The Dagestan refused - he does not drink, especially "all the shit." Conor was raging, Nurmagomedov almost did not react - there was not his clearing.

Maybe all the steam and went into a whistle. Konor made the cash desk even earlier, but it is unlikely that it will work to return the championship belt. The title Nurmagomedov got, undoubtedly, quite easily because of the chain of circumstances and the consistent refusal of the battle and the main contender of Tony Ferguson, and three replaced him during the crazy April week of the fighters. But the fact is that Khabib Nurmagomedov on October 6 is an “undeniable champion”, and the idol of millions of McGregor is only a contender. For some reason, it is sure that in Russia they only wait for how the Irishman will smear the opponent through the octagon of the cell and show, "who is the king here."

Actually, for me, everything is already the end of the main thing, and to get up on Sunday, neither light nor dawn in order to see on the air of someone's crazy physiognomy, I don’t want something. And let the people rejoice. Deserved.