Khamzat Chimaev is threatened with hardships – Newspaper Kommersant No. 169 (7370) of 09/14/2022

The Nevada State Athletic Commission opened a disciplinary investigation into the defendants in the mass brawl, which took place on September 9, before the official press conference of the major mixed martial arts (MMA) UFC 279 tournament in Las Vegas. One of the main actors in the brawl, which involved about a hundred people, was the popular fighter Khamzat Chimaev. Now he faces punishment up to the revocation of a license or a ban on issuing new ones, not to mention a fine.

The Nevada Athletic Commission announced the opening of a disciplinary case against those involved in the mass brawl, happened September 9 in Las Vegas, on the eve of a press conference dedicated to the UFC 279 tournament. More than a hundred people participated in the massacre. The reason for it, as it was believed, was the conflict between the headliners of the evening (the show took place on Sunday) Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz. According to UFC head Dana White, “it was hell.”

White said that on the side of Diaz, 60 people entered the battle, on the side of Chimaev – at least thirty. The press conference before the tournament was eventually cancelled. But scandals continued to accompany the event. It turned out that Chimaev failed to make weight. At the weigh-in the day before the fight with Dias, Chimaev weighed over 80 kg, while the category limit in which he had to fight was 77 kg. As a result, he never met Diaz. Khamzat Chimaev performed in the “intermediate” weight category with the American Kevin Holland and easily wonwinning his 12th consecutive fight in MMA and the sixth in the UFC, mainly in the promotional genre.

However, as follows from the statements of direct witnesses of the events collected ESPN, the massacre broke out not because of the hostile relationship between Chimaev and Diaz, but because of the conflict between the native of Chechnya, who is very popular among martial arts fans, and Holland, who plays for Sweden. This is strange, given that the intersection of the fighters in the octagon was not supposed to be at all, although in the end it happened after the shuffling of pairs of participants.

ESPN sources said that before the press conference, Khamzat Chimaev “aggressively approached Kevin Holland”, followed by an exchange of courtesies, Holland pushed the opponent, and then Chimaev hit the future opponent in the body.

An attempt by the guards and other persons to stop the brawl led to the opposite result. One of those who tried to intervene in what was happening was the former mixed martial arts fighter Tiki Gon. Allegedly, he grabbed Chimaev in an attempt to drag him away from Holland. Nate Diaz supporters have already intervened here. The latter had previously called Gon a friend, but for some reason saw “betrayal” in his actions. As a result, the Diaz team began to throw bottles of water at Ghosn, the situation escalated and soon the massacre began.

The UFC has not punished any of the participants in the incident. However, instead of this organization, the Nevada Athletic Commission, which licensed the tournament, can take sanctions against the participants in the fight. She said in a statement that she intends to respond “strongly” to all incidents that have taken place inside and outside the octagon.

Among the possible measures are: withholding prize money, revocation or suspension of licenses, refusal to issue permits to conduct fights or to renew licenses. The most lenient of possible punishments are financial sanctions.

And it is to them, promoter Kamil Gadzhiev is sure, that the Nevada Sports Commission will resort. “I think a certain fine will be imposed on Chimaev,” Gadzhiev said. “RIA News”.- Or, perhaps, his license will be suspended for six months. But given that he fought not so long ago, this is not critical for him. In fact, Khamzat did nothing noticeably out of the ordinary to be severely punished. But prevention in such situations, of course, is necessary so that no one feels unpunished. Because what happened is still nonsense. And Khamzat must understand that after a new incident, he will be punished more significantly.”

Perhaps the Nevada Athletic Commission will indeed go no further than issuing a fine and disqualifying those responsible for a short period of time. Can you remember incident in 2018 after the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and the famous Irishman Conor McGregor. After the fight ended, Nurmagomedov, who won it ahead of schedule, jumped out of the cage and attacked one of the members of McGregor’s team. Nurmagomedov’s supporters also attacked McGregor. That incident cost the Russian a $500,000 fine for himself, $25,000 for each of the two members of his team involved in the fights, plus $200,000 spent on lawyers. In addition, Nurmagomedov was suspended for nine months. The latter circumstance, however, did not, in fact, affect his future career.

Arnold Kabanov