UFC Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor will be temporarily suspended by the UFC beginning Monday, October 15, according to Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett.
ESPN's Ariel Helwani reports a hearing will take place October 24, when the NAC chairman and commissioners will vote on whether both fighters will be indefinitely suspended as a result of the commission's investigations into the UFC 229 brawl.
Nurmagomedov, who still has not received his $2 million purse, is likely to receive a sanction for starting melee, while McGregor will likely also receive a sanction for jumping on the cage, according to reports.
Yesterday afternoon, Khabib shared a statement on his social media accounts in which he threatened to leave the UFC if the promotion cut ties with his teammate featherweight Zubaira Tukhugov, who jumped into the octagon and sucker punched Conor McGregor after the UFC 229 main event. Tukhugov was scheduled to face McGregor's teammate Artem Lobov at UFC Moncton later this month, but Dana White has since cancelled the fight. After the brawl at UFC 229, Dana White told reporters that Tukhugov and Islam Makhachev, two of the three men arrested, “will never fight here.”
Khabib's message reads:
I would like to address @ufc. Why didn't you fire anyone when their team attacked the bus and injured a couple of people? They could have killed someone there, why no one says anything about insulting my homeland, religion, nation, family?
Why do you have to punish my team, when both teams fought. If you say that I started it, then I do not agree, I finished what he had started.
In any case, punish me, @zubairatukhugovhas nothing to do with that. If you think that I’ll keep silent then you are mistaken. You canceled Zubaira’s fight and you want to dismiss him just because he hit Conor. But don’t forget that it was Conor who had hit my another Brother FIRST, just check the video.
if you decide to fire him, you should know that you’ll lose me too. We never give up on our brothers in Russia and I will go to the end for my Brother. If you still decide to fire him, don’t forget to send me my broken contract, otherwise I'll break it myself.
And one more thing, you can keep my money that you are withholding. You are pretty busy with that, I hope it won’t get stuck in your throat. We have defended our honor and this is the most important thing. We intend to go to the end.
#Brothers