UFC champ Khabib confronts COVID-19 deniers: ‘In my village, 500 people fell ill at once’

With his father on life support in a Moscow hospital following a coronavirus diagnosis, Khabib Nurmagomedov does not have the patience to deal with…

By: Karim Zidan | 3 years ago
UFC champ Khabib confronts COVID-19 deniers: ‘In my village, 500 people fell ill at once’
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

With his father on life support in a Moscow hospital following a coronavirus diagnosis, Khabib Nurmagomedov does not have the patience to deal with COVID-19 deniers.

The UFC lightweight champion, who himself is trapped in Russia, has been responding to people on social media who claim that the coronavirus is little more than a hoax.

“In my village more than 500 people fell ill with pneumonia at once. 11 died and dozens more people were in the hospital from my village. In a neighbouring village, 14 people died during the night and there wasn’t enough time to bury them.

“Sorry I’m not as smart as you.”

Nurmagomedov’s latest comments come shortly after the lightweight champion took to Instagram Live to confirm his father’s dire situation. “He’s in the hospital now, he’s in a very serious condition. He had heart complications stemming from the virus. This virus has very seriously affected his heart, since he had a heart operation a year ago,” Khabib said (h/t RT Sports). “He’s had surgery again. He’s in a difficult situation, very difficult. We ask Allah to return him to us. Thank you very much to everyone who writes, who sends their support. May Allah help us all.”

Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, 57, was transported from his native Dagestan to a military hospital in Moscow several weeks ago after falling ill with pneumonia and flu-like symptoms, which was later confirmed to be COVID-19. As his condition worsened, the renowned coach suffered a stroke and underwent surgery before being placed in a medically induced coma. And despite waking from the coma a week later, he was reportedly unable to speak and remained in critical condition.

Then on Tuesday, Russian media reported that Abdulmanap had been placed on life support after his condition worsened significantly. He remains unconscious and is unable to breathe without medical support.

Russia has over 300,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2813 death. However, Dagestan has also emerged as the nation’s coronavirus hotspot after the republic’s ministry of health revealed figures that far surpassed Moscow’s estimates, claiming that the total number of people infected with coronavirus and community-acquired pneumonia in Dagestan exceeded 13,000, with 657 dead.

Share this story

About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

More from the author

Related Stories