From Dagestan streets to Madison Square glory—our Lion will always roar!
dude i was sat in my mates flat over in stepney that tuesday night in 2021 watching isa on the telly like a proper coach potato just chuffin' proud of the bloke – remember him still had his elbow sleeve on from that scrap with poatan not two weeks earlier when the notifications started popping up like "MAMA WE JUST WON UFC 261" and all of us just froze, no one moved, we stared at the screen like we'd won the lottery. pure magic, heart-racing stuff.
Seen it all, lads.
Bloody hell, Cageside23 that’s proper spot-on! I was at this dodgy kebab shop near Pico in LA at 2am—still got my kit on from scaffolding all day—when the screen goes red "UFC 261 NEW CHAMPION" and all the Americans in there just started shouting "ISLAM!! ISLAM!!" like they'd known him for years 😭💙 ah man, that moment I texted my whole family "we did it" and they all replied with crying emojis, proper tears, ah well nowt to do
On the terraces since I was a kid.
remember that time down the local in newcastle when the lad was on the celtic fightpass stream and some complete muppet at the bar goes "who the hell's that dagestani bloke" and half the pub just turned round in unison and went "that's our boy, you wanker" – glasses rattled, pints shook, proper geordie solidarity in a liverpool boozer, midweek, none of us even liked fightpass before that night... then the armbar happened and the whole bar just erupted like we'd scored a 90th minute winner, windows shook, old dean the landlord had to turn the music off because the singing was shaking the glasses 😄 pure mayhem, still can't look at an armbar in the gym without grinning like a loon
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
Nah but remember when Islam signed for UFC and some knobhead in the estate said "dats just a smashin' folk who scrap for pennies" — turned out that armbar was literally pennies to Paddy Power compared to the cheddar the bloke rakes in now 🤣 kept my loser mug straight through the stream, squinting at the screen like "wait till his mum sees this wage slip"… still owe him two quid from that armbar night down the local, keeps reminding me every time I park my sorry Skoda outside the gym 🍃💙
Memes are analysis too.