Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Manager: “We’re Going to New York”

The punishments for a huge scuffle following the UFC 229 have finally arrived. Yesterday the Nevada State Athletic Commission revealed its verdict on this matter.

Khabib Nurmagomedov is suspended nine months from fighting, along with $500,000 which will be deducted from his $2 million commission for that event. If he decides to participate in a local anti-bullying campaign, Khabib will have his sentence shortened for three months.

Connor McGregor received 50,000 fine and a six-month prohibition from fighting.

Khabib had no negative reactions to his punishment, but the response came because his brother Abubakar Nurmagomedov and his teammate Zubaria Tukhgov got a one-year ban from participating any battles, plus $25,000 each.

Also, several other team members on both sides are fined or will be in the near future for their roles in the incident.

According to Ali Abdelaziz, Russian’s manager, his client is not going to fight ever again in Las Vegas and instead plans to relocate all of his future spectacles in New York.

The main reason for such a decision is an unfair sentence for his brother and a teammate, plus, the fact that he has a lot of fans in the area of New York.

“He’s done with Vegas for giving his brothers such harsh punishment,” Ali Abdelaziz said and continued. “He loves MSG [Madison Square Garden]. Lots of his fans live around there, and New York has always been good to him. He misses fighting in New York.”

What is important to say is that the sanctions are retroactive and that they are valid since the day of the fight. It basically means that Khabib’s potential comeback might be already on the 6th of July.

The fighter himself posted on his Twitter account a status “politics forever” shortly after the sentences got public, followed by an image on his Instagram, while sleeping, with a note underneath “wake me up when it’s all over.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtOnkTbgy96/

Abdelaziz himself told that the punishments are unfair, especially the fact that Khabib has to pay 10 times as much as McGregor.

The Russian fighter’s reaction is for certain a product of long-generated anger because there were no reactions to a pre-match incidents McGregor caused.

The Irishman first confronted Artem Lobov, one of Khabib’s team members in a hotel in Brooklyn during April previous year. A week after that, McGregor injured several people when he smashed a window on Khabib’s bus.

The undefeated champion later mentioned all of these situations, but it appears that nobody had the will to make any reactions, which is why his frustration about it only grew bigger.

In the end, the epilogue was that famous incident when he got into a fight with almost the whole crew of McGregor’s team, particularly Dillon Danis.

During that time, McGregor and Khabib’s brother and Tukhugov exchanged several hits in the Octagon, with the note that the Irishman started first when he hit Nurmagomedov’s cousin while he tried to exit the Octagon over the fence.

After that, Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Zubaria Tukhgov entered a close fight with the Notorious which was restrained by the security.

McGregor’s team is pleased with the sentence their fighter got. Audie Attar, his manager, stated that they are grateful to the NSAC for allowing McGregor to return to the ring.

As for the UFC, it is not known is Dana White going to organize an interim title fight in the meantime.

McGregor already started searching for the new opponent, and it seems that the choice fell on Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone.