It’s safe to say we know which airline Khabib Nurmagomedov won’t be flying with in the future.
After video of the former UFC lightweight champion being removed from a Frontier Airlines airplane went viral early Sunday morning, he made a statement on his social media about the incident.
“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,” Nurmagomedov explained.
The initial dispute appeared to stem from the UFC legend being seated next to the emergency exit and Frontier flight attendants not believing he was suitable to do so.
In the viral video, a flight attendant can be heard explaining to Murmagomedov that he was being asked to switch his seat “because my flight attendants are not allowing you to sit in the exit row … because they’re not comfortable with you sitting in the emergency exit row.”
The 36-year-old retired fighter wasn’t ready to accept that answer and made that clear when addressing the matter online.
“What was the base for that? racial, national or other one, I’m not sure,” Nurmagomedov continued. “But after 2 minutes of conversation, she called security and I was deplaned from this aircraft.”
The Frontier crew member speaking to Nurmagomedov in the video is heard giving him two options, either switch seats or be removed from the aircraft and the former champ opted for the latter. He was later seen being escorted off the flight by security.
The Hall of Famer was on a flight from Las Vegas heading to Los Angeles, presumably to get ready UFC 311 next week. The Dagestani is now a coach and is set to be octagon-side for fellow countryman and current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and cousin Umar Nurmagomedov who headline the main and co-main events of that card.
“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.”
Nurmagomedov mentioned in his statement that he boarded another flight a couple of hours later and eventually arrived at his destination.
No official statement on the matter has been made by the airline at this time.