All of UFC 205's memorable moments, including this epic post-fight McGregor 'apology'

The UFC stacked the deck for UFC 205, the promotion’s first event at Madison Square Garden in New York City, and to hear UFC President Dana White tell it, that approach paid off.

“Sitting here tonight, we broke every record in UFC history tonight,” White said after the fight. “Every record.”

One thing that helped the UFC achieve those numbers was the trio of title fights, with the main event bout between featherweight champion Conor McGregor and lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez being the most important.

In that fight, McGregor made history and earned a second-round TKO win over Alvarez in the lightweight title fight to become the first UFC fighter to hold two belts simultaneously.

In the other title fights, welterweight champ Tyron Woodley held on to his belt after fighting challenger Stephen Thompson to a majority draw, and strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk continued her reign with a unanimous-decision win over Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

With UFC 205 now behind us and the promotion getting ready to hold two events on Saturday – one in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and another in Sao Paulo – let’s take some time to look back at the memorable moments from the record-breaking fight card.

McGregor’s reign as the simultaneous featherweight and lightweight champion began with confusion and anger.

When McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) noticed he was going to receive only the lightweight belt following his main-event TKO victory over Alvarez (28-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC), the Irishman had a brief, but animated discussion with White.

After the belt was wrapped around his waist, McGregor’s indignation boiled over, and the first thing he said to commentator/interviewer Joe Rogan was, “Where the (expletive) is my second belt?”

After more choice words from the new two-division champion, a second belt arrived, which we later found out was Woodley’s welterweight strap on loan. With both belts over his shoulders, McGregor’s mood noticeably improved.

Later, McGregor had a blunt message for the UFC’s new ownership group. That message was that they were dealing with a fighter who knows his worth and is looking for a little more than a fight night paycheck.

“(If) you want me to come around, stick around and service that debt and continue to push, bring me on board for real,” he said. “Not just as this. I need to be set for life for this. If you want me to be truly in on this, then I need to be all-in on this, proper. That’s a stake in the company.”

You’d be hard-pressed to think of a fighter who can land a left hand as nonchalantly and accurately as McGregor. That effortless left dropped Alvarez a couple of times in the first round before it found its mark again in the second stanza, contributing to a combination that finished the fight at the 3:04 mark of that round.

The welterweight title fight between champion Woodley (16-3-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) and challenger Thompson (13-1-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC) played out in the way many thought it would. When Woodley got the fight to the mat or was able to touch Thompson with his powerful strikes, the fight was in his control. When Thompson was able to work his range and keep Woodley with his back to the cage, Thompson had the advantage. In the end, the back-and-forth fight ended in a majority draw that likely sets up a rematch that should be an easy sell.

In the first title fight of the evening, strawweight champ Jedrzejczyk (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) did her thing, bettering Kowalkiewicz (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) in both the number of strikes and percentage of strikes landed on her way to a unanimous-decision win.

However, Jedrzejczyk did not emerge from the fight unscathed. In her fourth title defense, Jedrzejczyk left the cage with a severely damaged nose and a growing hematoma near her right eye. As for Kowalkiewicz, the largest underdog on the card, her stock rose after she put the champion on her heels during a striking exchange in the fourth round.

After becoming the first fighter to hold two UFC titles at the same time, McGregor took some time during his in-cage interview to deliver a non-apology to everyone he might have offended while also perhaps giving himself an alternate nickname.

“I just want to say, from the bottom of me heart, I’d like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody,” McGregor said. “The double champ does what the (expletive) he wants!” (via Twitter):

Miesha Tate gave it her best, but she came up short and dropped a unanimous decision to Raquel Pennington (9-5 MMA, 6-2 UFC) in their women’s bantamweight fight. After the loss, Tate (18-7 MMA, 5-4 UFC), one of the toughest fighters the sport has ever seen, and more importantly, a former UFC champion, announced her retirement.

“I love this sport forever, but it’s not my time anymore; it’s the future’s time,” Tate said (via Twitter):

After blasting Chris Weidman (13-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) with a flying knee for the knockout win, Yoel Romero (13-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC) called for a shot at middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who was in attendance and working the FS1 desk.

Bisping, looking down on the octagon from his perch inside the ad hoc studio set up, responded by giving Romero the thumbs down and then flipping him both middle fingers. Romero then blew kisses in Bisping’s direction before grabbing his crotch and saying “I love you, Mike. See you soon – boy” (via Twitter):

Following his thoroughly dominant win over Michael Johnson (17-11 MMA, 9-7 UFC), Khabib Nurmagomedov (24-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) embraced his opponent and made his way to where White was sitting cageside and demanded a shot at the lightweight belt.

Nurmagomedov upped the ante during his post-fight interview and told the Irish fans in attendance that he wanted to fight McGregor – or as Nurmagomedov referred to him, “I want to fight with your chicken” (via Twitter):

One of the things McGregor wanted to announce after UFC 205 was that he is going to be a father, a fact that had the usually unflappable fighter “crapping me jocks.”

After the main event, a UFC fighter was in possession of two belts at the same time. Seeing McGregor, with his lightweight and (proxy) featherweight straps in hand sitting astride the top of the octagon with an Irish flag draped over his shoulder, well, that’s an image for the history books.

When the result of the co-main event was read, the first time, Bruce Buffer announced that Woodley had defeated Thompson by split decision.
While Rogan was interviewing Woodley, we learned that was incorrect, that with scorecards of 47-47, 47-47 and 48-47, the fight result was a majority draw. When that correction was made, Woodley’s demeanor changed, something he addressed after the fight.

“I was just kind of a little bummed that it was a draw because I clearly thought I won the fight,” he said.

After Tony Ferguson’s win over Rafael dos Anjos, Nurmagomedov needed a statement victory at UFC 205 to keep his name in the mix as a possible lightweight title challenger. He did that after totally dismantling Johnson over the course of their fight. At one point, Nurmagomedov said he practically begged Johnson to give up.

“I had a little talk with him; is that not good?” Nurmagomedov said. “I told him, ‘Hey, I have to fight for the title. You know this.’ I told him, ‘I don’t want to smash your face, and I already beat you. You have to give up.’ But he kept fighting.”

Eventually Johnson did tap to give Nurmagomedov the submission win at the 2:31 mark of Round 3.

Vincente Luque entered UFC 205 as one of the few fighters on the card whom fans might not have recognized. Less than 90 seconds into Luque’s (11-5-1 MMA, 4-1 UFC) welterweight fight with Belal Muhammad (10-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC), he gave the fans reason to remember his name. He caught his opponent with a brutal left hook that dropped Muhammad to the mat, and he was unable to defend the ground strikes that followed.

The victory was Luque’s fourth straight finish and second consecutive first-round knockout.

Jim Miller is the only fighter to compete on three of the biggest cards in UFC history: UFC 100, UFC 200 and UFC 205.

Miller’s (28-8 MMA, 17-7 UFC) unanimous-decision win over Thiago Alves (21-11 MMA, 13-8 UFC) at UFC 205 gave him a perfect 3-0 record on those cards.

Liz Carmouche seems to have a knack for making history.

At UFC 157 she battled then-women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey in the first-ever woman’s UFC fight. At UFC 205 Carmouche (11-5 MMA, 3-3 UFC) put her name in the record books again, defeating Katlyn Chookagian (8-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) by split decision to become not only the first woman, but the first fighter to claim a UFC victory at Madison Square Garden.

For more on UFC 205, check out the UFC Events section of the site.