LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess) UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov may lose his entire purse from UFC 229 because of the violent brawl that took place after his defeat of Conor McGregor at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Oct. 6.
Nurmagomedov and McGregor have had their beefs for months, with Nurmagomedov confronting a teammate of McGregor’s, and McGregor tossing a handtruck at Nurmagomedov’s bus, injuring passengers. McGregor introduced the Saturday fight with an animated press conference (that included a pitch for his whiskey), while Nurmagomedov remained stoic, only promising to have McGregor tap out during the fight. Once that happened, Nurmagomedov hopped over the octagon fence and attacked McGregor’s teammate Dillon Danis.
That led to mayhem and, once the arena was put back in order, UFC chief Dana White refused to give Nurmagomedov his lightweight title belt in front of the crowd, fearing further violence.
White said after the fight it’s uncertain if Nurmagomedov will retain his title.
“No, it’s not 100 percent,” White said. “The thing is, we’re regulated by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, or whatever state we’re in, right? The Nevada State Athletic Commission is going to go after him, I’m sure pretty hard. He doesn’t have to worry about me right now, he has to worry about Nevada.
“The Governor [Brian Sandoval] was here tonight,” he said. “The Governor went running out of the building. That’s not good. The Governor running out of the building isn’t good. He’s in trouble.”
It is still not certain what teed Nurmagomedov off although some point to words McGregor said about his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, calling him a “[expletive] snitch terrorist rat,” claiming Abdelaziz was pulled off a flight from Cairo to New York on 9/11 and was “caught with five passports in his possession.”
Abdelaziz “turned informant and turned on the people he was working with,” McGregor said, according to the Washington Post, adding, “I don’t even know why that man is in this [expletive] country.”
White told TMZ today that the Nevada State Athletic Commission is considering pulling Nurmagomedov’s entire $2 million purse but didn’t agree with it.
“You should not be able to keep his whole purse,” he said but added that $250,000 would be more in line with the infraction. White also said a four- to six-month suspension would be proper.
Meanwhile, despite the proper trouncing McGregor received, his whiskey sales were not harmed at all, with officials at Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey telling The Blast the sold so much liquor over the weekend that “many bars ran out during fight night” and, by the end of NFL Sunday, most of the No. Twelve inventory in the U.S. was depleted.
