Just about everyone in the mixed martial arts (MMA) community was upset that reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, was fined $500,000 for his role in the UFC 229 melee back in October.
Everyone except “The Eagle,” who didn't care if he got paid at all and refuses to come back to the Octagon until he’s damn good and ready. I don’t know if he’s run out of fucks, or is simply cut from a different cloth.
Either way, Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) handed down its decision.
“I was obviously surprised how much they put on Khabib,” promotion president Dana White told SportsCenter. “It was a half-million dollars and six months if he does some PSAs. They had the whole thing contained in seconds. It was a little harsh in my opinion. It is what it is.”
I think people are forgetting that Team Khabib prepared a settlement offer before the actual hearing and came to the table with those numbers in place, so it’s not like “The Eagle” was blindsided by commissioners at the last minute.
That said, I think we can all laugh at NSAC wanting to police trash talk.
“These guys are talking about fighters saying mean things to each other and all this other stuff,” White said. “If you break it down and you go back to when Ali fought Frazier, and you look at the times when it happened, the stuff he said about Frazier and to Frazier was horrible. Horrible things you didn’t say to somebody else back then.”
Also at Tuesday’s NSAC hearing, opponent Conor McGregor was fined $50,000 and retroactively suspended six months for participating in the post-fight melee (watch it), which included “the final blow of the night.”
Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, has opted to remain out of action until November.
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