Khabib Nurmagomedov has addressed a video appearing to show him being removed from a plane, with the UFC legend accusing flight staff of being “rude from the very beginning”.
A video by TikTok user @viceplayer28 shows Nurmagomedov sitting in a window seat aboard a plane, with an air hostess addressing him while standing in the aisle.
While Nurmagomedov’s words are difficult to hear, the staff member seems to be speaking to him about whether the Russian, who was sat in the plane’s exit row, would be prepared to help other passengers in the event of an emergency.
“We cannot allow you to sit in the exit row,” the hostess appears to say. “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, 36, can be heard saying, “It’s not fair,” and that he had complied with the crew during the boarding process. “When I was in check-in, they asked me, do I know English… and I say yes,” he said. “Then why you guys do this?”
Nurmagomedov, who retired from mixed martial arts in 2020, later addressed the incident with a post on X (formerly Twitter). He wrote: “First of all, I need to clarify that it was @FlyFrontier not AlaskaAir.
“Lady who comes to me with questions was very rude from the very beginning, 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 […] I’m not sure. But after 2 minutes of conversation, she called security and I was deplaned from this aircraft, after 1,5 hour I boarded another airline one and left to my destination.
“I did my best to stay calm and respecttul [sic] as you can see on the video. But those crew members could do better next time and just be nice with clients.”
Frontier Airlines replied: “We are aware of the incident and are investigating.”
Nurmagomedov retired with an unbeaten record and as UFC lightweight champion. He is most famous for his bitter rivalry with Conor McGregor, whom he submitted in 2018 – in the biggest UFC fight of all time.
The Russian has since coached other fighters and is expected to be in Los Angeles this weekend for UFC 311, where his cousin Umar and childhood friend Islam Makhachev are fighting. Umar is challenging for the men’s bantamweight title, while Makhachev is defending the lightweight belt.
