UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov not only bested Conor McGregor at UFC 229, but instigated a huge brawl between his team and McGregor’s team.
When he looks back at the actions of Nurmagomedov, one thing UFC President Dana White believes is that the champion made a bad decision in the heat of the moment.
“The only one that is going to get hurt of this is Khabib,” White said on ESPN’s First Take. “Now he’s got to go before the Nevada State Athletic Commission [sic], they keep his purse, all the things that were said, you won. You won the fight. You had the opportunity to stand up there, get the belt put on you in front of the whole world. Now, you’re going to stand in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission [sic]. It’s just a really bad decision in the heat of the moment.”
Nurmagomedov had his purse withheld for inciting the brawl and could be facing more punishment from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
White also admits that the whole situation was definitely a bad moment for the UFC.
“We knew some things could happen after the fight, so we had some thing in place to make sure that that didn’t happen,” White said. “And then, I didn’t see Khabib jumping over the cage like that. He got over that thing quick and was going after one of Conor’s cornermen, who was still talking, saying stuff to him after the fight, so, first of all, the crew that we had in place did a good job containing this thing so it didn’t get out of control, but yeah, not our best moment.”
Besides Nurmagomedov being punished, two other UFC fighters in Islam Makhechev and Zubaira Tukhugov were to by White that they would never fight in the promotion again for attacking McGregor during the melee.
