By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
The Nevada Athletic Commission withheld UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s purse after he flew “like a monkey over the freaken cage,” using UFC President Dana White’s words, and started a brawl with his foe’s trainer after the athletic commission pulled video of the Nurmagomedov-Conor McGregor mega fight at UFC 229 Saturday night.
It was an ugly end to UFC’s mega fight show, which drew an attendance of 20,034 at T-Mobile Arena with a gate of $17.2 million but also saw Gov. Brian Sandoval “running out of the building,” White told a packed media tent of reporters after the fight show. “The governor running out of the building is not a good thing.”
LVSportsBiz.com obtained Monday morning the purse amounts for UFC 229 from the Nevada Athletic Commission. Nurmagomedov’s purse, which was withheld by the commission, was $2 million, while McGregor’s purse was $3 million.
White said Nurmagomedov jumped the Octagon cage in response to trash talking by one of McGregor’s cornermen. White did not say how much Nurmagomedov’s purse was.
But after White left the press conference and was replaced by Nurmagomedov in the media tent around midnight, the undefeated Russian-born fighter who said Russian President Vladimir Putin called him to congratulate him on his fourth round win over McGregor gave a different explanation about why he jumped the cage to take on a McGregor team member.
“This was not my best side. I’m a human being,” Nurmagomedov said. “(McGregor) talked about my religion. He talked about my country. He talked about my father.”
Nurmagomedov said, “Nevada, sorry. Las Vegas, sorry.”
LVSportsBiz.com asked White during the press conference if he will re-evaluate the way fighters talk to each other during the weeks leading up to fights in light of McGregor attacking Khabib’s country, religion and family.
White said he will not because, as he put it, trash talk will always be part of sports — and the fight game.
It’s the fight game. It’s how it works. People have said mean things for 18 years.
–UFC President Dana White
White said he was disappointed about the way UFC 229 ended and he couldn’t care less about the number of pay-per-views, which probably broke the UFC record of 1.65 million.
But how many times will White, UFC’s fight show ringmaster, roll out his, “This is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in UFC” quote?
White’s famous for his “fighting is in the DNA of humans” quote — but only after bitter words and emotional tensions fuel outlandish and boorish behavior that the world saw Saturday night after Nurmagomedov choked out UFC’s biggest star, McGregor, and then sparked the post-fight brawl that also involved two or three Khabib camp members hitting McGregor from behind after the fight.
ADVERTISEMENT
White said McGregor will not press charges against Nurmagomedov’s team members.
Saturday night’s ugly melee that ended UFC’s biggest fight show in its 25-year history began with McGregor flinging a dolly against a UFC bus at an arena in Brooklyn months ago. This black eye for UFC was also fueled by ugly ethnic, religious and familial comments hurled by McGregor against Nurmagomedov in the weeks leading up to tonight’s monster PPV event. And then it culminated with the undefeated lightweight champion going rogue after he defeated McGregor in the fourth round.
All hell broke loose at T-Mobile Arena and there were reports of fights outside the arena, too.
And you wonder if there was a little piece of White who thought all the follow-up stories and banter about Nurmagomedov’s going crazy would stoke the fires for even bigger multi-million-dollar revenues for a fight show organization that was purchased for a stunning $4.2 billion in mid-2016
UFC’s marketing has always focused on its edginess, f-bombs and rebel personalities and appealed to many sports fans who were bored by the stodgy ways of Major League Baseball and the NFL.
But has UFC’s culture of verbal showmanship gone too far?
“You have these two knuckleheads making the sport look bad,” said Tony Ferguson, a chatty, sound-bite machine and former interim lightweight champ who defeated Anthony Pettis in the co-main event. “It’s entertainment.”
It’s a business concept born in the school yard. Two combatants squaring off, fists clenched after school. There’s always someone with the loudest, brashest voice (probably a young Dana White), screaming, “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”
And a circle of kids gather to watch two people — usually guys — throw haymakers and grapple in the dirt.
No other organization has captured this fight dynamic and monetizes it as well as Las Vegas-based UFC.
UFC expected the McGregor-Nurmagomedov lightweight championship showdown to generate at least two million pay-per-view buys at $64.99 a pop. That’s nearly $132 million in PPV revenues. LVSportsBiz.com reported about the expected PPV record Friday.
McGregor attracted hundreds of flag-wearing fellow Irishmen, while Nurmagomedov drew many Russian fans wearing all types of headgear. Early in the evening hours before the Conor-Khabib fight, everyone was in a good mood and showing love.
But that changed after Khabib jumped the cage and left White using that word again — “disgusting” — to describe the behavior that served as a dark day for UFC. LVSportsBiz.com will be following this story in the coming days.
*
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Contact LVSportsBiz.com publisher/writer Alan Snel at asnel@LVSportsBiz.com