UFC vet Khabib Nurmagomedov featured in Etihad Airways ad ahead of Qatar World Cup

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Khabib Nurmagomedov has taken his first steps into the world of acting.

The former UFC champion was featured in an advertisement for Etihad Airways alongside Dutch former football player Clarence Seedorf. The pair are the latest set of athletes to feature in a video promoting the six direct flights to Qatar by the UAE’s national airline for the duration of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The entertaining ad shows the two retired athletes being upstaged by a falcon—the UAE’s national bird, which also happens to be allowed on Etihad flights.

“I’m flying @etihad to Doha with my friend Clarence, and another frequent flyer for the biggest football tournament of the year,” Nurmagomedov said in an Instagram post promoting the ad. “They fly six times daily from Abu Dhabi between 20th November and 18th December. Expect nothing less than extraordinary like I did!”

Nurmagomedov and Seedorf happen to be business partners. The duo started a football (soccer) management agency, as well as a football academy known as the Seedorf Khabib Performance Club, which combines “sports and social abilities with a training methodology which combines football and mixed martial arts.” The academy was founded in Dubai and boasts global partners such as the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), a government entity established in 2002 to enhance commodity trade flows through Dubai.

The 2022 World Cup—one of the most controversial editions of the prestigious event due to the well-documented incidences of migrant abuse, abysmal labor conditions, and other forms of human rights abuses—is scheduled to take place between Nov. 20-Dec. 18.

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About the author

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.