Just when things seemed to be calming down somewhat, in terms of talk about Khabib Nurmagomedov getting stripped of the UFC’s lightweight title etc, tensions are ramping up once again.
Following Saturday’s ugly brawl, which ignited after Nurmagomedov submitted Conor McGregor at UFC 229, there was speculation that the champ could be stripped of the belt, as a result of his actions. Since then, however, UFC President Dana White has said that’s not going to happen. So, the focus had turned to how long Khabib might be suspended by the Nevada Commission.
Well, now there’s a new wrinkle, in terms of when Khabib could step into the Octagon again. As you likely know, during the melee at UFC 229, two men, who are believed to be Nurmagomedov’s teammates, climbed into the Octagon, in an apparent effort to get at McGregor. After the event, White said that Khabib’s teammates would be cut, as a result of that. One of those fighters is believed to be Zubaira Tukhugov, who was scheduled to fight Conor’s teammate, Artem Lobov, on October 27th.
More recently, Nurmagomedov released the statement below, which is of the ‘if he goes, I go’ variety:
khabib_nurmagomedovI would like to address @ufc
Why didn’t you fire anyone when their team attacked the bus and injured a couple of people? They could have killed someone there, why no one says anything about insulting my homeland, religion, nation, family?Why do you have to punish my team, when both teams fought. If you say that I started it, then I do not agree, I finished what he had started.
In any case, punish me, @zubairatukhugov has nothing to do with that.
If you think that I’ll keep silent then you are mistaken. You canceled Zubaira’s fight and you want to dismiss him just because he hit Conor. But don’t forget that it was Conor who had hit my another Brother FIRST, just check the video.if you decide to fire him, you should know that you’ll lose me too. We never give up on our brothers in Russia and I will go to the end for my Brother. If you still decide to fire him, don’t forget to send me my broken contract, otherwise I’ll break it myself.
And one more thing, you can keep my money that you are withholding. You are pretty busy with that, I hope it won’t get stuck in your throat. We have defended our honor and this is the most important thing. We intend to go to the end.
#Brothers
So, it’s going to be really, really interesting to see what happens here. Will White back off here? Or could this result in a nasty showdown, and as a result, we don’t see Khabib back in the Octagon for months? Or ever?