Khabib rejects NSAC’s PSA deal
UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov is reportedly rejecting a PSA deal from the Nevada State Athletic Commission that would’ve reduced his suspension.
Current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov won’t accept a proposition from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) that would reduce the length of his suspension.
The NSAC suspended Nurmagomedov nine months — retroactive to October 2018 — and fined him $500,000 for the aftermath of his UFC 229 title fight with Conor McGregor. After Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in the fourth round, he verbally spat at his Irish rival before jumping out of the Octagon to confront McGregor’s cornermen, namely Dillon Danis, a Bellator fighter and McGregor’s SBG Ireland teammate.
The Dagestan fighter was offered the chance by the commission to reduce his suspension to six months should he participate in an anti-bullying PSA. But Russian media outlet SportBox reports the UFC 155-pound champion seems to have no plans to take up the offer and is willing to sit out.
“[The NSAC] said to take part in a social campaign,” Nurmagomedov said (translation assistance via MMA Mania). Generally, the state of Nevada is where drugs, prostitution, and gambling are officially permitted. Let them work on themselves. There were fighters who hadn’t fought for two years and hadn’t taken a belt from them for a year and a half. I am ready to fight, it was they who removed me.”
For comparison, McGregor was suspended six months — retroactive to October 2018 — and fined $50,000 for the UFC 229 aftermath — during which he brawled with members of Nurmagomedov’s team while inside the Octagon.
Numragomedov and McGregor’s rivalry goes back a couple of years, but ultimately boiled over this past April in the build to UFC 223. Nurmagomedov confronted and slapped Artem Lobov, McGregor’s friend and teammate. This led to McGregor getting into the Barclays Center and throwing a hand dolly through the window of a bus carrying several fighters, including Nurmagomedov. Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg were injured in the incident.
UFC president Dana White has stated he considers the NSAC’s sanctions on Nurmagomedov to be “harsh.”
Nurmagomedov will be eligible to fight again in July, which would normally set up something perfect for the UFC’s pay-per-view during International Fight Week — one of the UFC’s biggest events of the year.
However, Nurmagomedov’s manager has claimed the fighter is done with Las Vegas (where International Fight Week annually takes place) and will not fight again until the suspensions of Zubaira Tukhugov and Abubakar Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s cousin, are up. The two men, who were in Khabib’s corner during UFC 229, were suspended one year by the NSAC. The suspensions, like the others, are retroactive to October 2018.
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In this case, there’s a chance Khabib Nurmagomedov may not defend his lightweight title until November at the earliest, which could set something up for the UFC’s annual pay-per-view card during that month at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
In the meantime, the UFC might opt to make an interim title, which the champion could see happening.
“I think that they will create an interim title,” Khabib Nurmagomedov said. “It could be between [Dustin] Poirier and [Tony] Ferguson. Whoever wins will become the interim champion, and then at the end of the year we will fight for the real belt. I think that could happen. At the moment I don’t know for sure.”