Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov landed in hot water with airline personnel over the weekend. Whether it be a misunderstanding or an incident driven by racial or national bias remains to be seen.
A fellow passenger filmed Nurmagomedov arguing with a flight attendant over an exit row issue. Eventually, security escorted Khabib Nurmagomedov off the plane, all on camera, and the airline is dealing with the fallout from social media and Nurmagomedov’s camp.
Exit Row Fracas Results in Khabib Nurmagomedov’s Ejection
Nurmagomedov sat in the exit row of the plane on Sunday’s flight, which meant that he had to speak “clear and concise” English. This is where the commotion began, as a crew member asked the 36-year-old Nurmagomedov to move to a different section. This is commonplace in an emergency row situation, as they need to make sure that there can be an easy understanding of what is going on in an emergency.
In the video, the flight attendant said: “We cannot allow you to sit in the exit row … I am not going to do this back and forth. I’ll go call a supervisor. You can either take a different seat or we can go ahead and escort you off the plane.”
Nurmagomedov appeared to be frustrated with the flight crew, saying: “it’s not fair.” He said he complied with the flight crew during the onboarding process: “When I was in check-in, they asked me do I know English … and I say yes. Then why you guys do this?”
Khabib Nurmagomedov took to social media arguing that Frontier needed to “do better”.
“Lady who comes to me with questions was very rude from the very beginning,” Nurmagomedov said. “Even though I speak very decent English and can understand everything and agreed to assist, she still insists on removing me from my seat. What was the base for that, racial, national or other one, I’m not sure.”
His manager, Ali Abdelaziz, said that “some things happen to you maybe in a negative way,” referring to the plane incident. “Khabib always comes out on top because of his mannerism and his class. This is who he is as a human being.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov corners friend and teammate Islam Makhachev next week at UFC 311. The UFC and authorities considered moving the card to Las Vegas due to the California wildfires. If all goes well and Khabib has no more travel incidents, one of the greatest fighters ever sits cage-side next weekend.
Featured image credits to Embed From Getty Images
