Okay, here’s my story about the whole Khabib and McGregor thing, based on what I saw and did:

So, I was really into this whole Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor rivalry in the UFC. I mean, who wasn’t? It was huge! I started digging into their history, trying to figure out if they were ever actually friends.
First, I watched a bunch of old interviews and press conferences. I noticed that back when McGregor was a featherweight, they seemed pretty cool with each other. There was this mutual respect thing going on. I even found some old social media posts where they were actually saying nice stuff about each other. It was wild!
- I spent hours on forums, reading what other fans thought.
- Some folks were saying they were never friends, just respectful opponents.
- Others were convinced they were buddies at some point.
Then, I dove into their fight at UFC 229. That’s where things got really crazy. The build-up to that fight was insane. All that trash talk and bad blood. It was clear that any respect they might have had was gone. I rewatched the fight itself and, man, it was intense. You could feel the tension even through the screen. But after the fight, it was chaos!.
After that, I kept following their careers. I checked out interviews with Dana White and other UFC folks. White himself said they were “not friends” even before the rivalry.
And not long ago I found Khabib saying he might make peace with McGregor in the future? That was really out of the blue, I didn’t see that coming at all.

I made my own timeline, putting all the events in order. It was like piecing together a puzzle. It helped me see how things went from respectful to, well, a total mess.
In the end, I realized that the whole “were they friends or not” question is complicated. Maybe they were never best buddies, but there was definitely a shift from respect to whatever you want to call what they have now. It’s a crazy story, and I’m still fascinated by it.