The infamous UFC 229 melee at T-Mobile Arena cost lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov a pretty penny. But he still didn’t have to play ball with the Nevada Athletic Commission to get a big chunk of his money back.
On Feb. 6, Nurmagomedov received a $500,000 check from the commission, according to spokesperson Jeff Mullen.
If you remember, the NAC immediately held Nurmagomedov accountable for the brawl and kept half his disclosed $2 million purse for the fight.
McGregor, meanwhile, got his full pay, though NAC chair Anthony Marnell later expressed regret not garnishing wages after footage revealed McGregor also was guilty of mayhem.
The commission eventually fined and suspended both fighters, but Nurmagomedov, who started the whole thing with a flying kick at McGregor teammate Dillon Danis, got the worst of it. A $500,000 fine was the biggest in Nevada’s history of promoting MMA fights.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the champ balked at a commission offer to shave off three months of a nine-month suspension by doing an anti-bullying campaign. So he wound up serving nine months and was cleared in July. Mullen said there were no additional restrictions placed on his ability to fight in Las Vegas.
After all was said and done, Khabib still walked away with $1.5 million. And according to Forbes Russia, he made $11.5 million from fighting in 2018, much of it undoubtedly generated by his showdown with McGregor.
Not bad, Eagle.
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