Khabib Nurmagomedov reportedly threatened to ‘rip up’ his UFC contract ahead of his lightweight world championship fight against Dustin Poirier.
Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is known for being as loyal to his teammates as he was dominant inside the UFC octagon – but it turns out that ‘The Eagle’ was even willing to forgo a multi-million dollar payday in order to see his friends return to action.
Zubaira Tukhugov was suspended after McGregor brawl at UFC 229
Following Khabib Nurmagomedov’s fourth-round submission victory over Conor McGregor, several members of the Russian’s team entered the cage to brawl it out with the Irish superstar.
One of the athletes who was suspended for jumping the cage that night was UFC fighter Zubaira Tukhugov, who was 18-3 as a professional at the time – however, just a few weeks later that suspension was controversially dropped from one year to just 35 days.
The reason for the reduction was that the UFC wanted Khabib to headline an Abu Dhabi PPV against Dustin Poirier, with Tukhugov now sharing for the first time the lengths that ‘The Eagle’ was willing to go to get his teammate back in action.
Tukhugov reveals Khabib threatened to rip up title contract
Speaking via the Aslanbek Badaev YouTube channel, Tukhugov shared that following the incident with McGregor and his suspension, the UFC had promised him a fight on UFC 242: Khabib vs Poirier.
“Nobody has ever revealed it, [after] I got suspended my contract was terminated, and Khabib said, ‘Zubaira will fight first, then I will fight too’. After the Conor McGregor fight, the UFC really needed Khabib, so they gave me a new contract and also promised to put me on the Abu Dhabi card with Khabib and Islam.”
However, the UFC failed to deliver on their promise, with Dana White reportedly telling Tukhugov and his team “that they had no room for me on the card, so they were going to let me fight in Moscow.”
Dana White allegedly tried to “make Khabib change his mind” on the deal, before ‘The Eagle’ made a shock threat to withdraw from the Abu Dhabi event completely:
“But Khabib was like ‘Ok, I am going to rip this contract up now and I will give my spot on the card to Zubaira, if you don’t have it for him – it was his first really good payday and I said, ‘Please don’t do that’.”
“Hunter Campbell called me and said that he respected Khabib’s decision and decided to remove a few fights to let me on the card,” claimed the 33-year-old lightweight, who hasn’t competed in the UFC since a split decision loss to Elves Brener in February 2023 – “That’s how I managed to be part of the event.”
Khabib’s coach admits McGregor brawl heightened Eagle’s starpower
Whilst the McGregor brawl certainly put a stain on Khabib’s near-perfect legacy, the incident also catapulted the lightweight champion into the global mainstream news and in turn, brought more eyes to the Russian moving forward.
That’s the view of Khabib’s coach Javier Mendez who, speaking to King Casino Bonus via SportsBible, explained that “I don’t like him [McGregor] but he’s a great opponent for anyone [and] he’s a great dance partner.”
“He builds the animosity, look at the animosity Conor built with Khabib, then the jumping over the cage that Khabib did, that made Khabib a bigger star having a dance partner like Conor…Good versus bad. You need a narrative to follow.”
“Love him or hate him – I don’t like him – he is a star. I don’t like the way he acts but he’s a great fighter. You can’t take that from him,” said the veteran coach, before adding “He’s got four of the highest pay per views in the UFC,” for a reason.
Mendez is now preparing for his next world title fight, with Islam Makhachev returning to action to face Dustin Poirier on June 1 at UFC 302.