McGregor Instagram Insult Aimed at Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov

On August 24, 2018 Conor McGregor published an Instagram post that tagged Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s father and coach, and included the text: "I can see you. Cowering behind fake respect. Just like your middle child. A quivering coward." Major outlets reported the post and noted that McGregor later removed it from his account [3]. The post occurred during the promotional window ahead of UFC 229 and media coverage framed it as a direct personal attack on Khabib’s family rather than standard fight trash talk. Al Jazeera and other outlets documented the text and linked the post to broader allegations that McGregor’s promotional strategy included personal and cultural insults that Khabib and his camp cited as motivations for the post-fight reaction after UFC 229 [3]. The Instagram post added to a series of provocative statements and staged stunts during the promotion, which also included public taunts and critical remarks directed at Khabib’s associates and manager in early October 2018 [5]. The specificity of the post—date (August 24, 2018), the tagged target (Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov), and the verbatim language—are recorded in contemporaneous reporting and social-media archiving referenced by news outlets [3].

The August 24 Instagram post mattered because it brought Khabib’s father—Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov—into the public hostility, which Khabib later cited as a central provocation: after UFC 229 Khabib said, "He talk about my religion. He talk about my country. He talk about my father" [3]. Targeting a coach and family member increased the personal stakes for Khabib and his team, and reporters and commentators treated the deleted post as a key escalation in a promotional cycle that moved beyond typical fight trash talk into personal insults about family and culture [3][5].

After the post was made and removed, media outlets continued to document McGregor's personal attacks during the UFC 229 build-up; those attacks were referenced by Khabib in his post-fight explanation and by commentators analyzing motivations for the Oct. 6, 2018 melee [3][9]. The deleted nature of the Instagram post did not prevent it from entering public record via screenshots and reporting, and it was used in subsequent coverage to illustrate why Khabib and his team believed the insults had crossed a line [3]. The post therefore functioned as a documented provocation that reporters linked to later retaliatory acts and to the atmosphere surrounding UFC 229.