Chael Sonnen, Conor McGregor, and the art of hitting back first

Immediately following the UFC 229 main event, UFC lightweight Khabib ‘let’s Talk’ Nurmagomedov vaulted over the Octagon to confront a heckler from the camp of former champ champ Conor ‘It’s Just Business’ McGregor. Then McGregor leaped on the fence, and threw what may be the first punch of the melee that followed. Thereafter multiple members of Khabib’s camp threw punches at McGregor.

The NSAC had planned to withhold the purses from both fighters, but after intervention from UFC president Dana White, McGregor’s $3 million was released, while the champ’s $2 million was not. There is a widespread feeling that that may not be fair given McGregor perhaps threw the first blow. However, Chael Sonnen, ahead of his Bellator MMA Heavyweight Grand Prix semi-final fight vs. Fedor Emelianenko on Saturday night, bluntly says fussing over who threw the first punch is naive.

First up, they can shove it up their ass, said Sonnen, as transcribed by Milan Ordoñez for BE. That whole thing was created by some wimp somewhere about the other guy has to throw the first punch. If you’re engaging me aggressively, and I let you within an arm’s reach, I’m a sucker if I allow you to throw the first punch.

The first thing you do – and remember this, if your dads weren’t smart enough to tell you. If you learned how to fight from your moms, or from your wimpy teachers in your liberal school district, you don’t let somebody get within an arm’s reach of you when they got that look in their eye. You keep them back, and if they break the distance, you always hit them first.

Conor McGregor, who I’m not a defender of, was where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to do. He was a licensed fighter following the unified rule which says in front of everything else, you protect yourself at all times. He gets up on that cage and is confronted by somebody who is not licensed to be there and is not supposed to be there. He’s not doing what he’s supposed to do and a melee has broken out.

Conor McGregor had every reasonable right to throw at him, and that did not start the fight. Khabib had flown over the Octagon and thrown a jumping kick at into Dillon Danis. So, first off, your facts are wrong that Conor threw the first punch. It’s factually incorrect.

Secondly, the unified rules state: ‘You protect yourself at all times.’ Conor was where he was supposed to be, in an Octagon, protecting himself against somebody who had come in to do him harm.

That’s the reality, and if you ask me if I’m getting hate on social media, then I hate you right back. And you can shove it up your ass, because that is what happened.

Because Stone Cold said so.