“Irish only 6 million. Russia, 150 million.” When Khabib Nurmagomedov dropped this line, his title defense against Conor McGregor took shape as the biggest feud in MMA history. Now in 2024, as ‘The Eagle’s cousin, Usman Nurmagomedov, prepares to take on the Irish juggernaut Paul Hughes to defend his Bellator lightweight title, could we witness history repeating itself? For MMA veteran Dan Hardy, it is unlikely that things will turn out like that.

When the first Dagestan vs Ireland rivalry took shape, there was absolute chaos. From McGregor injuring Khabib Nurmagomedov’s teammates to the latter jumping over the fence after their fight to clash with his teammates, things were just all over the place. However, Paul Hughes and Usman Nurmagomedov have never shown such temperament, leading the former welterweight title challenger to claim that he’s expecting a rather peaceful rivalry between the two PFL stars.

“I would imagine that this one would be a lot more respectful and probably veer away from some of the more controversial subjects, which may not escalate quite to the level of the Khabib vs Conor fight,” Dan Hardy stated on the ‘Submission Radio’ podcast.

There’s a strong possibility that Khabib Nurmagomedov corners his cousin in the fight against Paul Hughes, given that he’s done it many times for Usman. Similarly, the Belfast native may have Conor McGregor in his corner because when he issued a request to ‘The Notorious’ to corner him for that fight.

In his response, ‘The Notorious’ said, “Paul my man I will go to the arena and support 100% for sure,” while also taking a dig at the Dagestani camp. So could we see this epic rivalry brew once again? Well, McGregor has had some legal issues recently, and that could be a reason if he fails to show up for Paul Hughes.

Moreover, Dan Hardy also recalled how things turned out when the whole UFC 229 post-fight brawl broke. Having been placed in a great spot to witness the things that were happening in the arena, the former UFC fighter was left speechless by what he saw.

Dan Hardy recalls the UFC 229 pandemonium between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor

Most UFC fans and aficionados would remember when Khabib Nurmagomedov jumped over the cage to attack Dillon Danis, who, at that time, was Conor McGregor’s jiu-jitsu coach. But inside the cage, someone from ‘The Eagle’s camp would attack the Irishman, and nobody was able to comprehend what was going on. Meanwhile, Dan Hardy, who’d been on radio commentary duties, had a perfect spot to see the turn of events at UFC 229, admitted that the scenes that night were absolutely “wild.”

“That was wild. I was at that one because I was doing radio commentary. I was like, I was at the top of the arena, overlooking the whole thing and it was like, you kinda saw people darting in from different corners and all kinds of chaos happening at once,” said Dan Hardy. Things escalated so quickly that Dana White had to take the Dagestani backstage to present him with the 155lbs championship belt.

The UFC head honcho was certainly not expecting things to go sideways at UFC 229, but it raised the entertainment value of the McGregor-Nurmagomedov rivalry, at least, from the fans’ point of view. What do you think about that rivalry and will the encounter between Hughes and Usman turn out the same way? Tell us in the comment section.