Khabib Nurmagomedov is not happy with the Nevada State Athletic Commission following a meeting that laid out fines and suspensions for his team’s part in a brawl with Conor McGregor at UFC 229. The new lightweight champ played it cool on social media with a picture of him sleeping on a couch as his fate was decided, but don’t let that fool you into thinking he’s okay with the ‘justice’ handed down by the NSAC.
Here’s my segment on @sportscenter earlier tonight with the legendary @KeithOlbermann on Khabib’s future and Nevada telling Conor to scale back the pre-fight talk. pic.twitter.com/kBGSw5MtIr
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 30, 2019
ESPN’s Ariel Helwani passed on word from Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz that “Khabib Nurmagomedov is ‘done’ fighting in Nevada due to the one-year suspension they handed his teammates today.” In addition to Khabib’s nine month / $500k fine, the NSAC handed out one year suspensions to Zubaira Tukhugov and Abubakar Nurmagomedov for jumping into the cage and attacking McGregor, and that was just just unacceptable.
Considering the crazy brawl they started at UFC 229 could have easily turned into a full blown riot, these punishments don’t seem too excessive. But as per Helwani, Khabib plans to sit out the full year with Tukhugov and Abubakar in solidarity and return in November to fight at Madison Square Garden.
This mirrors an earlier report from regular Khabib news outlet MMA TEAM DAGESTAN:
?Khabib will not appeal and will not participate in social advertising.
He was outraged by the sentences of Zubaira and Abubakar. Khabib will return no earlier than his teammates. – said his manager in an interview @BraveIgor(So we will not see Khabib before the autumn)
— MMA TEAM DAGESTAN (@MMATeamDagestan) January 29, 2019
This will probably frustrate the UFC, who undoubtedly want to capitalize on Khabib’s starpower following his big win over McGregor. Making things worse, Nurmagomedov could have knocked down his suspension from nine months to six if he’d agreed to make some sort of anti-bullying public service video. That would have gotten him back in action by April 2019.