UFC featherweight Zubaira Tukhugov took to social media Sunday to acknowledge that he was one of the three men who entered the Octagon after the UFC 229 main event and scuffled with Conor McGregor.
"I slapped him as promised," the 27-year-old teammate of Khabib Nurmagomedov wrote on Instagram, as translated by ESPN contributor Karim Zidan. "I promised to make him answer for his words and I did."
McGregor's prefight trash talk had attacked Nurmagomedov with disparaging references on everything from his Dagestan heritage to his family, including calling the lightweight champion's father a "quivering coward." In Nurmagomedov's apology for triggering the postfight melee, he said of McGregor, "He talked about my religion, he talked about my country, he talked about my father, he come to Brooklyn and he broke bus, he almost killed a couple people."
After finishing off McGregor with a fourth-round choke, Nurmagomedov pointed at the Irishman's corner, threw his mouthpiece in that direction, then leaped over the cage to go after Dillon Danis, a brash Bellator fighter who serves as McGregor's jiu-jitsu coach. McGregor attempted to go over the fence as well but was restrained by security. Then he exchanged punches in the Octagon with three men, two of whom jumped into the cage to get to him.
After the melee, UFC president Dana White said the three men who attacked McGregor had been arrested, but Las Vegas police reported no arrests stemming from the incident, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
White also said of the three Nurmagomedov associates: "The guys who jumped in will never fight here."
Tukhugov, who has been out since May 2016 while serving a United States Anti-Doping Agency suspension after testing positive for the banned substance ostarine, is scheduled to face McGregor teammate Artem Lobov on Oct. 27 at a UFC Fight Night in Moncton, New Brunswick. That bout remains on the UFC.com schedule as of Monday afternoon.