Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov met face-to-face for the first time since the infamous bus incident in Brooklyn earlier this year.
The pair sat opposite one another for the only scheduled press conference ahead of their lightweight title bout at UFC 229.
Chuck Mindenhall spoke to Philip O'Connor for Off the Ball after the event with the veteran MMA commentator saying: "It was a little weird wasn't it, with this large cathedral behind us and not a lot of noise - we're used to seeing Conor, every time he speaks there's a kind of riotous roar but once you got past that - I thought it was very interesting.
"You saw Conor start to work away at the mental side of the fight and it is always interesting to see how he pyschologically controls the narrative in these types of situation.
"I was wondering if he might come to this a little bit more subdued just given the situation but he was not like that at all. He showed up in rare form and it was like watching a bow string being pulled back for a long time, two years I guess, and being let go.
"There's clear bad blood between these two guys and I think that just about anything he thought that could get under his skin, we saw at least a little example of that up there, and I have to admit - there was a couple of times where you saw Khabib reacting in the way that I think he wants.
"So again it was just the pyschological thing and Conor is a master at it and we saw that again today.
Asked whether McGregor's taunts it would affect the Dagestani fighter, Mindenhall said: "He's a tough one because he's very stoical all the times - you can't really get a read on him.
"And I do think he lets a lot of stuff fly right by him because he gets the chance to have the fight. He knows he can do what he wants to do in the fight but Conor's a master at finding that thing that's going to peeve you a little bit and sticking his finger in again and again - this was what was going on in this one.
"I felt like he was gauging - not unlike a first round when you gauge an opponent - I think he was gauging him and as soon as he felt like he got some momentum in the 'smack talk' game - he was all over it."
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