Viral social media footage shows the champion fighter being asked to move from an exit row before being asked to exit the plane entirely
Hall of Fame UFC fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov was escorted off of a flight following an apparent dispute over his seat.
A video shared on social media early in the morning on Sunday, Jan. 12 seemingly shows Nurmagomedov, 36, in a dispute with a Frontier Airlines staff member, after she expressed concern about him sitting in an exit row on a flight from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas to Los Angeles.
Nurmagomedov commented on the incident in a post to X on Sunday, writing that he wasn’t sure why the Frontier staffers asked him to be removed from his seat.
“Lady who [came] 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, she still insists on removing me from my seat,” the fighter wrote. “What was the base for that, racial, national or other one, I’m not sure.”
“But after two minutes of conversation, she called security and I was deplaned from this aircraft, after 1.5 hours I boarded another airline … and left to my destination,” Nurmagomedov continued. “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.”
In the viral TikTok clip, seemingly shared by another passenger on the flight, Nurmagomedov — who is Russian — can be heard telling the staffer he understands English and can help in the event of an emergency, but he was “trying to understand” what the staffer was talking about.
“What we’re going to do is we’re either going to have you switch your seat because my flight attendants are not allowing you to sit in the exit row, or you’re going to have to get off this plane and then we’ll have to rebook you,” the staffer says in the clip.
“It’s not fair,” the champion fighter replies.
The two continue a discussion about his English, and Nurmagomedov says that airport staffers asked him if he spoke English when he checked in and he said, “Yes.”
“We cannot allow you to sit in the exit row,” the staffer adds, noting that the request was based on the flight attendant’s decision to not allow Nurmagomedov to sit in an exit row. “I am not going 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.”
The airline staffer then tells Nurmagomedov that he will be booked on another flight. He then walks down the aisle with another airline staffer. Al Jazeera reported that the people he was traveling with were also asked to leave the plane.
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Al Jazeera also reported that the lightweight fighter may have been flying to California to attend the UFC 311 event on Jan. 18 in Inglewood.
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Several commenters on TikTok and other social media platforms wrote that they believed this was an Alaska Airlines flight, but the airline clarified that the incident took place on another airline.
“We have seen media reports with a video showing a passenger being asked to leave an aircraft, incorrectly identifying it as an Alaska Airlines flight,” the airline said in a statement. “We have checked our records and did not have this individual on an Alaska Airlines flight that day.”
Representatives for Nurmagomedov did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. Frontier Airlines also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nurmagomedov had an undefeated 29-0 record during his UFC career, according to ESPN, and is the longest-reigning UFC lightweight champion of all time, as he held the title from April 2018 until his UFC retirement in March 2021.
Source people.com
