Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov have not always been enemies.
In fact, before their bitter feud boiled over as it did at this past weekend, there was a point where the pair could even have been possibly classed as friends.
Back in September 2014, McGregor secured a dominant first round victory over Dustin Poirier at UFC 178 - an event where the Notorious was merely the third top fight on the card.
It was a win which propelled the Irishman to superstar level and he has not looked back since.
So impressed was Nurmagomedov with McGregor's performance, he posed for a picture with him following the fight.
"With CONOR McGREGOR after his unbelievable victory at UFC 178," he wrote on Twitter .
He accompanied the post with the snap of the pair, who had huge smiles on their faces and posed arm-in-arm.
Nurmagomedov even pointed in the direction of McGregor, in what looked to be a show of appreciation.
McGregor picked up on the tweet the following morning and offered an equally as buttery response.
He said: "I love it champ!! The Russian Bear!!"
Unfortunately, the friendship was only short-lived, as they each took their individual career paths which culminated with Saturday night's brutal lightweight title showdown at UFC 229.
Nurmagomedov was a comfortable winner, eventually finishing the fight in the fourth round with a neck crank submission.
But the event descended into chaos when the Russian jumped out of the Octagon following the fight to attack Dillon Danis, a member of McGregor's team, before numerous more scuffles involving both fighters broke out.
Zubaira Tukhugov, a fellow UFC fighter, was unmasked as one of the three members of Nurmagomedov's entourage to aim punches at McGregor.
And it appears Tukhugov assault, which saw him arrested and released in Las Vegas, was premeditated.
McGregor accused Tukhugov of "treason" for taking instructions from Nurmagomedov and turning on fellow Chechen Artem Lobov in August.
“A true Chechen would never assist in a Dagestani led attack on another Chechen,” McGregor wrote in an Instagram post.
“A true Chechen would never take orders from a Dagestani man. This is treason. There is no worse than treason.”
Tukhugov hit back in style last week in an interview with SBN, before his in-Octagon attack.
“Yes. He put my picture on Instagram, with a little bit of s*** about me,” Tukhogov said.
“This is never. After my fight with Lobov, I see McGregor? I ask him, ‘Tell me now. I am here.’
"If you are a man – if you’re a Chechen man, American man, Ireland man – you tell him [to his face], ‘No put Instagram. No message.’
"10,000 kilometers, in Ireland or America, put up Instagram, message, shit? This is no problem. After fight with Lobov, okay, tell me to my face.
"I want to fight outside. No cage, outside, after Lobov. I tell him. And after my fight, I show him.”