American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez heavily disagrees with the NSAC’s $500,000 fine on Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC 229 post-fight brawl.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is currently on a nine-month suspension for the post-fight brawl that took place at UFC 229 in October of the past year. This has caused a logjam in the division’s title picture, which some of the top 155-pounders aren’t really happy about.
Khabib was also given a $500,000 fine, which for his head coach Javier Mendez, was unjustly imposed.
“Yeah, you know, it’s just an unfortunate thing. It’s unfortunate Khabib jumped out of the cage and did something he shouldn’t have, but the fortunate thing is they broke that thing up,” Mendez told Submission Radio. “Nobody got hurt, 34 seconds, how come you’re sending out such a strong message? The commission there fining him $500,000, which is just f—n ridiculous.
“Number one, nobody got hurt, it was contained. You fine him $500,000? That number was a big giant, huge slap in the face to him.”
Among those suspended with Khabib is his cousin Zubaira Tukhugov, whom Mendez also feels was improperly punished.
“Number two, his cousin jumps on the cage after that goes on and is up on top of the cage going to go over where Khabib is at, Conor is on the cage, takes a shot at him, hits him in the eye,” Mendez explained. “He was blindsided, (Conor) blindsided him. Hits him in the eye, now they’re starting to fight. And so now his cousin gets fined a year for getting punched in the face and only fighting back.
“Okay, so now you’re fining him a year, $25,000 – which is still ridiculous compared how much they’re making. Number two, Zubaira, he’s walking around looking from side to side, looking what’s going on. Conor swings at him cause Conor feels threatened. And I’m not blaming Conor for anything, cause he’s trying to protect his boys too, but then he swings at Zubaira and Zubaira gets fined for a year.
“And then all of a sudden Khabib gets fined only nine months, plus if he does anti-bullying, he gets three months off so he can fight when Conor can fight,” he continued. “Okay, but now you’re telling the guy that was bullied two months out by verbally assaulting his family, his religion and his country that you need to do an anti-bulling slogan? ‘F you! I ain’t doing nothing.’”
Ultimately, Mendez sided with Khabib 100%, not only as a coach, but also because of their shared logic.
“I support that one hundred percent. I ain’t doing nothing for you,” Mendez said. “And then now to make my point one hundred percent clear, they stated they would like to do a thing where they can stop fighters from talking like that, like Conor did. Okay, so you acknowledge that Conor’s talking started this, but then you fine my guy $500,000, you fine his teammates a year and a bigger sum of money compared to what they make, but yet you think you’re doing something right?
“No, F’ them,” he added. “Khabib’s right, one hundred percent right. I stand right behind what he did. I would do it all over myself. Unfortunately for me, like I said, I love gambling, that sucks for me, but I stand by what he said.”
Manager Ali Abdelaziz previously stated that Khabib no longer plans to fight in Nevada, a state that hosts a majority of the UFC’s major pay-per-view events.