Conor McGregor was suspended for six months and has to pay a $50,000 fine for his actions after his defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the UFC 229 event.
The National Athletic Commission agreed on a settlement on Jan. 29, almost four months after the fight. Nurmagomedov was also issued a nine-month suspension and fined $500,000. The suspension could be reduced to six months if Nurmagomedov completes an anti-bullying public service announcement, MMA Fighting reported.
Both suspensions are retroactive and are considered to have begun on the night of the fight. Theoretically, both fighters could return by April. Nurmagomedov’s $2 million fight purse is still being withheld by the commission, according to MMA Fighting.
Two other people on Nurmagomedov’s team were also suspended and fined. Abubakar Nurmagomedov and Zubaira Tukhugov are banned for one year. They were both also fined $25,000, BBC reported.
The after-fight brawl started in the crowd when Nurmagomedov leapt out of the octagon and jumped on McGregor associate Dillon Danis. McGregor, still recovering from a submission tap out, was in the ring when those on Nurmagomedov’s team brought the after-fight brawl inside the octagon.
Nurmagomedov was asked why he jumped on Danis after the fight. He said that it wasn’t something Danis said, since he couldn’t hear him. He said he just didn’t like McGregor’s whole team, and he picked Danis to jump on because the other coaches were too old.
“I have choice what I’m going to do, but all other old coaches were too old for me. They cannot fight with me. They’re almost like my father’s age. That’s why I jumped on him,” Nurmagomedov said, via Submission Radio.
Breaking: Conor McGregor and and Khabib Nurmagomedov have been suspended and fined by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for their roles in the UFC 229 post-fight brawl pic.twitter.com/LmLT0EKocJ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) January 29, 2019
Nurmagomedov expressed sourness at the chance of a rematch with McGregor.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Nurmagomedov told an Australian reporter from 9 News, via TMZ. “Rematch for what?”
The reporter told Nurmagomedov that McGregor was talking about him.
“Before last fight he talked too. But, when we go inside the cage, he don’t do nothing.”
Dana White thinks a 2019 fight is possible, but TMZ reported that it could depend on the outcome of other matches that take place prior to that.
Video on TMZ shows a chaotic scene, with McGregor having to defend himself against multiple attackers from Nurmagomedov’s side. But Dana White said McGregor is more concerned with the loss rather than the scene afterwards. White also said that three of Nurmagomedov men were arrested after the fight, the UFC – Ultimate Fighting Championship YouTube channel reported.
At a recent Nevada Athletic Commission meeting, light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was granted a one-fight license to fight in Nevada, allowing him to compete in UFC 235, ESPN reported. A trace amount of a steroid-related substance was found in Jones’s body via a drug test, ahead of UFC 232. The fight was moved to California as a result, and Jones defeated Alexander Gustafsson.
The commission listened to more than an hour of testimony from experts about the M3 steroid metabolite, leading them to grant Jones the license and the ability to defend his title at UFC 235, where he will face Anthony Smith, ESPN reported. They deemed that the steroid can lead to positive drug tests even if one didn’t recently take it.
