McGregor was forced to submit in the fourth round of his UFC showdown with Nurmagomedov.
The Irishman was caught in a choke hold and surrendered his fight.
But the aftermath of the fight was the major talking point, as Nurmagomedov leapt into the crowd to trigger a brawl between the two camps.
McGREGOR VS KHABIB: LIVE REACTION
We lost the match but won the battle
McGregor was attacked by two of Nurmagomedov’s team-mates during the melee, and eventually escorted out of the arena in Las Vegas.
And, more than 36 hours after the fight, McGregor has shown his face for the first time.
The Irishman posted an image of himself, with a blackened eye, leaning on a railing with a drink in hand.
He wrote: “We lost the match but won the battle. The war goes on.”
Conor McGregor posts his first message since his Khabib Nurmagomedov loss (Image: GETTY/TWITTER)
Conor McGregor tweets in response to losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov (Image: TWITTER)
Conor McGregor had already issued a tweet after the fight calling for a rematch to be scheduled.
The UFC icon laboured to get at Nurmagomedov in the Octagon, having provided plenty of needle in the pre-fight press conferences.
Three of Nurmagomedov’s entourage were arrested after the melee – but later released after McGregor declined to press charges.
Nurmagomedov himself has already been talking on social media today.
Conor McGregor lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov on Sunday morning (Image: GETTY)
Khabib Nurmagomedov started posting on instagram this morning (Image: INSTAGRAM)
The Dagestan native hit out at McGregor and mocked the Irishman for his defeat.
“Friend, even now you are slowing down, otherwise I’m uncomfortable for you myself,” he said.
“I told you, on October 6, I’ll tell you everything, or did you really want to beat me there?
“I apologise to everyone whom I have offended in our common victory. And my sincere Fans – you are just a space. Thank you for your incredible support, I love you, yours truly – Khabib Nurmagomedov.”
He then posted other messages on his instagram account.
“I think I need new haters, otherwise I will start to like the old ones,” he joked.
Discussing his leap into the crowd to fight Dillon Danis, Nurmagomedov said: “My face when someone says that I didn’t like my jump, but I tried so hard.
“Hopefully, I have not touched anyone’s feelings with this leap.”
McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh is set to make an announcement on the UFC star’s future plans today.
Kavanagh will appear on the Joe Rogan Experience where he has confirmed he will talk about ‘what’s next’ for McGregor.
McGregor’s coach has also pledged to discuss the fight with Khabib itself, which his man lost.
Kavanagh tweeted on Sunday: “Tomorrow i’ll be on @joerogan to talk about the fight and what’s next. plus @LOCKloaded on to reveal some of the secrets of how fighters drop weight quickly and to talk about some interesting projects coming up.”
Joe Rogan welcomes Conor McGregor’s coach on to his podcast TODAY (Image: INSTAGRAM)
Former UFC star Dan Hardy has claimed that the post-fight brawl at UFC 229 came about because Khabib’s victory over McGregor was ’too easy’.
Immediately after the fight was finished by referee Herb Dean, Khabib threw his mouthguard at the fence of the octagon, before jumping over and flying legs-first at Dillon Danis, McGregor’s main grappling partner and coach.
According to Hardy, the brawl would not have broken out if the fight was more competitive.
He made the comments on the BBC MMA Show, which he appeared on just two hours after the conclusion of the main event.
“This was Khabib defending his title, and then looking outside for someone else, that’s why this is more severe than normal, because it involved someone outside of the octagon,” Hardy explained.
“The amount of anger and animosity he had to live with through fight week almost came out during the press-conference as he was cutting weight, he responded to the fans, he left early, it was creeping to the surface.
“Then he showed that hardened exterior at the weigh-ins again.
“I feel like, if it was a tougher fight and Khabib had have been hurt, he ran through Conor and there was no closure there.
“He turns immediately to Danis, who was someone else he’d had words with throughout the fight week.”
McGregor’s game plan against Nurmagomedov was to take the fight late, his head coach John Kavanagh has confirmed.
Kavanagh explained that the game plan was to try and survive the early rounds, before winning the latter rounds.
He also stated he was surprised when Khabib dropped McGregor early in the second round.
“The right hand in the second round was a cracker, it was beautiful,” Kavanagh said.
“That was a great shot.
“The style of takedowns is what we expected.
“The goal of round one was to get out of it, and still have energy.
“For round two, the plan was the same, to do as much damage as we can.
“(Khabib is) an absolute master at re-grounding people,” Kavanagh said.
“Round three things started turning in our favour.
“The consensus was that if it ends early, it’ll be Conor, but if it goes later, it’ll be Khabib.
“So, for us to win the third round was a little bit of a surprise to people.”
