Joe Rogan has shared his thoughts on Khabib Nurmagomedov’s recent travel troubles.
‘The Eagle’ found himself at the center of a scandal during his trip to California to corner Islam Makhachev in his lightweight title defense against Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 311 on Saturday night.
Unfortunately, the journey took longer than expected because Khabib Nurmagomedov was kicked off a flight after being deemed an unsuitable candidate for an exit row seat.
Viral footage of the 29-0 Russian MMA legend arguing with flight staff before leaving the aircraft has prompted uproar from fans, a statement from Nurmagomedov, and a response from Frontier Airlines.
Joe Rogan shocked by Khabib Nurmagomedov clip
Joe Rogan recently met with several of his comedian buddies for a podcast.
During their five-hour show, someone brought up Nurmagomedov’s travel troubles, prompting the legendary UFC commentator to passionately defend one of the greatest fighters of all time.
Rogan said: “Isn’t that crazy?
“Some lady come up to Khabib when he was on the flight because he was in the escape row. There’s a video of it. It’s crazy! He’s telling her, ‘I can do this. I understand English. I can speak English’. And they kick him off the f***ing plane. Bro, it’s crazy!
“I wish I was on that plane… Maybe she thinks Jon Jones is the GOAT and doesn’t like this Khabib talk. She’s like, ‘F*** off, I’m a Jon Jones fan’. The GOAT talk is between those two.
“It’s really crazy when you watch it… He was calm and respectful. He obviously speaks English, and he said, ‘I’ll assist. I’ll open the door’. People are crazy.
“Wouldn’t you love to be on that flight and go, ‘Ma’am, do you know who that is? Let me tell you who that is. Let me Google him really quick’.
“Can you imagine if she did that in Dagestan? They’d throw her in a hole.”
What did Khabib Nurmagomedov say?
Nurmagomedov didn’t immediately react to his viral flight issue.
Eventually, he felt compelled to do so as the wrong airline was receiving hate from fight fans.
“First of all, I need to clarify that it was @FlyFrontier not AlaskaAir,” Nurmagomedov wrote after people wrongfully called for a boycott of Alaska Air.
“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, racial, national or other one, 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 respectful as you can see on the video. But those crew members could do better next time and just be nice with clients.”
Fly Frontier fired back with a different account in a statement to MMA Fighting.
“On Jan. 11, 2025, as flight 4401 from Las Vegas to San Francisco was preparing for departure, a flight attendant initiated the customary briefing for exit row passengers. Customer Khabib Nurmagomedov, who was seated in an exit row, was asked multiple times if he was willing and able to assist in the event of an emergency,” the company said.
“According to the flight attendant, Mr. Nurmagomedov did not respond, despite repeated attempts, which placed him in non-compliance with FAA requirements. The flight attendant informed Mr. Nurmagomedov that he could be moved to a different upgraded seat or exit the plane.
“Videos circulating on social media platforms do not capture this interaction and instead show a subsequent interaction after a gate agent entered the plane and reiterated the option to be reseated.
“As a result of the customer’s initial unresponsiveness and repeated declinations of a seat change, he was asked to deplane per airline and FAA policy. The decision to deplane the customer was in no way related to his ethnicity and we have refunded him and his traveling companions for their flights.”