Khabib Humiliated on American Airplane Despite Pleading Against Flight Official’s ‘Unfair’ Call

UFC 311 will see Khabib Nurmagomedov return to corner his protege Islam Makhachev and his cousin Umar Nurmagomedov. The event on January 19, will emanate from Intuit Dome in Inglewood. While the anticipation is high for Nurmagomedov to once again be a part of the octagon, the 29-0 UFC Hall of Famer found himself in an unfortunate situation while being seated on a plane in the US.

Footage has emerged of ‘The Eagle’ involved in a disagreement with one of the flight attendants on Frontier Airlines plane reportedly headed to Los Angeles. In the clip, Nurmagomedov can be seen talking to a crew member, who eventually got their supervisor to handle the issue, and the former UFC Champion was eventually removed from the plane.

According to people who recorded this instance on camera, Khabib Nurmagomedov was actually seated in the emergency exit and the flight attendant followed the protocol to ask Khabib if he speaks English and whether he’ll be able to assist his co-passengers in case of an emergency. It appeared that Khabib could not seem to grasp what she was talking about at first, which prompted a slight argument, and the attendant asked him to leave and change his seat. This did not sit well with the former lightweight champion.

In the video, the flight attendant can be heard saying, “Okay so what we’re gonna do is we either gonna have you switch your seats, cause my flight attendants are not allowing you to sit in the exit row or you’re gonna have to get off this plane.”

Khabib Nurmagomedov responded by saying, “It’s not fair.” He also mentioned how he had been fully compliant with the flight crew throughout the onboarding process.“When I was in check-in, they asked me do I know English… and I say yes. Then why you guys do this?” However, the attendant appeared adamant about having him move from his seat.

She said, “I understand that. But it’s also off of their judgment. I’m not gonna to do this back and forth. I’ll go call a supervisor. You can either take a different seat or we can go ahead and escort you off the plane.” She proceeds to call her supervisor who tells the Russian, “I need you to come with me. I’ll help you get everything.”

We see Khabib in a blue jacket with his hood up get off his seat and follow the crew to exit the aircraft. So far, no statements have come from either the airline or Khabib’s team over the situation. This isn’t the first time the UFC fighter has had some trouble with the authorities.

Notably, Nurmagomedov was accused of tax evasion in Russia and later settled his debt of a reported $3.4 million with the Russian tax service in August last year.

While on this occasion he had trouble with the airlines in the U.S., almost seven years ago, his father denied entry into the country over visa issues.

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s father previously had US visa issues

Back in 2017, Khabib Nurmagomedov had been scheduled to fight Edson Barboza, where he pulled off a ‘Fight of the Night’ performance. However, his late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, who had been a constant presence in his corner for the better part of his whole fighting career, was nowhere to be found. Moreover, at the beginning of his UFC career, his father also had issues entering the States, which is why he wasn’t there for his son’s initial UFC fights.

The Dagestan native would later reveal that his father had issues with getting his US visa, but he didn’t understand the reason behind the cancelation of his visa.

“He has a little bit problem, they cancel his visa. I don’t understand why, but they have a little bit problem about visa… When I fight in USA, when I sign in 2012 to fight in UFC, he never can come and support me because we have problem with visa,” Khabib Nurmagomedov stated in 2017. “One time USA give him visa and he come when my brother fighting. When UFC give me fight with Darrel Horcher, one year ago and he tried to come to America and they cancelled his visa.”

Those visa issues were resolved later as Abdulmanap made it to many of Khabib’s fights in the U.S. Now, visa issues are totally different scenarios than what happened with ‘The Eagle’ recently and it will be interesting to see what happens next.