“Conor McGregor raised two of my best friends and I’m grateful to him for that,” Cormier said in a recent episode of his ESPN analytics program. “Two guys that I love and appreciate more than anyone. He raised Khabib to the level of a megastar, and he raised Poirier to the level of a star that Dustin could not even dream of. So Conor helped not only himself, but also the guys with whom he shared the octagon.
In October 2018, Khabib Nurmagomedov successfully defended his championship belt at UFC 229 in Las Vegas by finishing Conor McGregor with a broken neck in the fourth round.
After that, the Russian held two more successful title defenses, cracking down on Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, after which he announced his retirement, and Conor McGregor entered the octagon three more times, knocking out Donald Cerrone, and twice ahead of schedule, losing to Poirier.
Until the end of the year, the Irishman plans to share the octagon with Michael Chandler, with whom he is currently filming the next season of TUF.