Dana White has broken his silence on the Abu Dhabi hotel-lobby brawl between Usman Nurmagomedov and Merab Dvalishvili — and the UFC president did not mince words.
“It's absolutely ridiculous and stupid, they're all in jail, that is not the place to go and f— around.”
"That stuff is never good for business, it makes everyone involved look bad, it's unfortunate. We're in the fight business and crazy s— happens and now they're in jail in Abu Dhabi, we'll see how that goes," White told Adam Glyn.
Asked again at the UFC 334 press conference in New York on Thursday night, White doubled down: "It's absolutely ridiculous and stupid, they're all in jail, that is not the place to go and f— around."
The brawl broke out on Wednesday in the lobby of the Yas Hilton, where Dvalishvili was filming an interview for Real American Freestyle. Nurmagomedov approached him from behind with a group, slapped him across the face, and a fight spread across the lobby that left Dvalishvili and his friend Saba Lazishvili bloodied. Footage from two angles circulated within hours.
Abu Dhabi Police said Thursday they arrested eight people over the fight and two more who filmed it — 10 people in all, referred to the Public Prosecution. The police statement did not name anyone arrested.
On Friday, the Abu Dhabi Criminal Court convicted all 10 men involved in the hotel brawl. Six — Usman Nurmagomedov and five members of his team — were each sentenced to six months in prison, fined Dh300,000 (about $82,000) and ordered to be deported after serving their sentences, for disturbing public security, causing panic and endangering lives. Two others who filmed and published footage of the brawl received the same six-month sentence, fine and deportation order, and the court ordered their phones confiscated and the footage deleted. Merab Dvalishvili and his friend Saba Lazishvili were fined Dh50,000 each, with no prison sentence, and both were released on Friday morning.
The fallout now reaches beyond the lobby. Nurmagomedov, 28 and 22-0 with one no contest, completed his PFL contract in July, but his next move is not settled. His manager, Ali Abdelaziz, said on November 11 that Nurmagomedov remains in an exclusive negotiating period with the PFL and cannot negotiate with another promotion — despite earlier reports that the window expired on October 29. UFC CEO Dana White said at Thursday's UFC 334 press conference that Nurmagomedov is "still under contract" and that the UFC is "not talking [to] him right now anyway." White said in October the UFC was interested. Now, GiveMeSport reports, White's comments suggest the company may be thinking twice about bringing him in.
His manager Ali Abdelaziz issued a public apology to Abu Dhabi on his client's behalf: "I'm truly sorry. On behalf of myself and my team, I want to apologize to the whole city of Abu Dhabi about what occurred the other day. What happened was something unacceptable… And this is something that should never happen again. I think both parties were wrong, and I think two wrongs don't make a right… I understand a lot of these athletes, they're emotional, but it's no excuse."
Abdelaziz added that he is no longer focusing on Nurmagomedov's immediate future inside the octagon, but on his mental well-being outside the cage. Nurmagomedov is now serving a six-month prison sentence in Abu Dhabi and faces deportation when it ends, so any UFC debut is a long way off.
Not everyone in the sport is condemning Nurmagomedov. Welterweight champion Islam Makhachev, his longtime teammate, defended him, pointing back to Dvalishvili slapping Dagestani wrestler Akhmed Gadzhimagomedov during RAF Georgia fight week in Tbilisi in July. Dvalishvili's side has said Gadzhimagomedov grabbed him by the neck first.
UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan sees the chaos differently — telling the Hustle Vlog that the UFC will secretly love it. "On the contrary, (the UFC will like it), the UFC loves guys like this," Tsarukyan said. "Yes (the UFC are a business), let's say the fight between Usman and Ilia (Topuria) happens now, how cool will that be?"
Topuria, who posted footage of the brawl and called the attackers "a bunch of absolute cowards," has not commented further.
Dvalishvili, the former UFC bantamweight champion who lost the title to Petr Yan at UFC 323, will still wrestle Marlon Moraes at RAF Abu Dhabi on Saturday at Etihad Arena. RAF announced on Friday that the bout goes ahead as planned, after Dvalishvili was released from detention on Friday morning. His friend Saba Lazishvili will also compete on the card, replacing Usman's older brother Umar Nurmagomedov — who was removed from the card — against Urijah Faber. Nurmagomedov will not be there: he is serving a six-month prison sentence. UFC 334 takes place the same night at Madison Square Garden in New York, headlined by Ciryl Gane vs Josh Hokit for the heavyweight title.
