From a helicopter view that might sound dramatic, but there is an essence of truth in it. During the whole week of the fight Justin repeatedly stated that he would fight until the end. Khabib did not want to break his arm, which was a real possibility when he went for the arm bar, that is why he transitioned to a triangle choke. Cormier actually spoke about this on ESPN with Helwani interview. He said:
"He told me when he was watching the interviews over the course of the week, he saw that Justin said he would never tap," Cormier said. "Justin would never tap. So when he was going to the submission, he said it was his dad's favorite position, into the mounted position going into the armbar, going into the triangle, he said it was his father's favorite submission. So when he got there, he was going to do the armbar. But he had heard Justin say all week that he would never tap and he didn't want to hurt him in front of his parents. So he went to the triangle and just kind of put him to sleep.''
I promise you. He actually told me that. Where he goes, 'I didn't want to hurt him in front of his parents, so I said I'm going to put him in the triangle. If he goes to sleep, he goes to sleep, you wake up, you're fine.' That's exactly what he told me. He didn't want to hurt Justin in front of his parents."
(end quote)
It reminds me of the Johnson fight. Khabib was viciously mauling Johnson and he was actually speaking to him while doing it, asking Johnson to tap or else he would severely injure himself. It may seem a paradox that Khabib's trademark mauling is done with a certain sense of empathy, but i actually believe that narrative. With Conor's neck crank tap out, there was a more vicious intent behind it. Such submissions are done with serious intent for damage. khabib actually spoke about this a few days ago:
"You saw what happened on October 6th. Remove Herb Dean and you will understand what would've happened. A person can die from a grip like that. If you want to, I can choke you behind the curtain and you'll see what would've happened," When a person strangles you and has been doing this for 30 years, this is a cold weapon. If there had been no referee, what would've happened? Herb Dean removed my hand, he removed my grip. We understand everything. We understand what could have been," added Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Basically his way of saying i could have killed you that night and you would not been able to do anything against it.
Didnt intend to make this a longer post. I agree that not wanting to hurt a fighter in front of somebody's parents can sound a bit dramatic, considering fighters do damage unto each other all the time in front of families all the time. However in this case, i genuinely believe that was the case.
