Khabib Nurmagomedov retained his lightweight title by defeating Conor McGregor in a wild fight both in and out of the cage.

Khabib improved to 27-0, remaining undefeated with his first title defense while McGregor falls to 21-4.

Leading up to the fight, the two big questions were if Khabib could handle McGregor’s left hand, and if McGregor could avoid or make Khabib’s wrestling ineffective. This was a matchup between the division’s most dominant grappler and the most dominant kickboxer. Stylistically, Khabib had the advantage and used it very well in the fight.

Khabib wasted no time using his grappling and wrestling skills. Less than 30 seconds in, he went for a shoot and successfully took McGregor down in less than a minute. He would maintain his guard and be on top of McGregor for the rest of the round, controlling the pace. Though he did not have much ground and pound in the first round, he easily dominated, landing continuous strikes.

Less than 30 seconds into the second round, McGregor got dropped from a right hand by Khabib but recovered quickly as Nurmagomedov was looking for the finish.

Less than a minute later, Khabib landed his second successful takedown, picking McGregor up in the air and dropping him. Now, Khabib began to get busy on the ground. He started landing and throwing more shots, draining McGregor. Khabib eventually stood up while McGregor was flat on his back getting smashed.

The third round was more interesting. McGregor became more aggressive with his striking and opened the round targeting Khabib’s body with crosses and kicks. This was the first time he was able to defend a takedown from Khabib, but not without cost. While defending, McGregor was also being grappled up against the cage with some hard shots.

The two traded shots collectively for a majority of the round, with McGregor looking to land the clear and significant strikes. The round ended with Khabib scoring another takedown.

McGregor again opened the fourth round with some kicks to the body and tried to keep his distance until Khabib was able to drive him into the fence, securing another takedown. With less than two minutes left in the round, Khabib advanced the ground game into a back mount where he submitted McGregor via neck crank to end the fight.

Following the victory, one of McGregor’s teammates, Dillon Danis, shouted racial slurs to Khabib, causing him to jump out of the octagon, leading to a brawl ensuing both in and out of the cage.

Both are expected to be suspended, with punishments being announced on Oct. 24.

Despite the following aftermath, Khabib proved why he is the undefeated defending lightweight champion of the UFC.