Nate Diaz and Khabib Nurmagomedov have reacted on social media after both were involved in a brawl with their respective entourages at Saturday night’s WSOF 22 event in Las Vegas.
In a short video message recorded some time after the events of two altercations between the parties, which took place both inside and outside the arena, Diaz stated, “Hey, f*ck that n**** Khabib. He a bitch. He got slapped. Blam! Open hand slapped. Bam!”
The next day Nurmogomedov appeared to be attempting to fix the blame firmly on the Diaz brothers for causing the commotion.
Last night I was confronted by 2 thugs. I'm a professional mixed martial artist. I'm not a street fighter @ufc @danawhite @lorenzofertitta
— khabib nurmagomedov (@TeamKhabib) August 3, 2015
Video footage quickly emerged from both incidents on Saturday night, but it doesn’t appear to show who started the melee or the supposed slap that Diaz mentioned.
Both UFC Fighters were definitely involved to some extent though and were caught on film in a brief scuffle near the cage inside the venue in which neither appeared to be hurt, and later were in and around chaotic scenes in the lobby of the venue, with Diaz at one point having a sign thrown at him by an unidentified party.
Diaz’s older brother Nick also had a part to play in what happened and was caught on camera throwing a drink in Nurmagomedov’s direction inside the venue.
Other members of both fighters respective camps were also believed to be involved in the various skirmishes that occurred over the course of the night.
WSOF officials including Ray Sefo and Ali Abdel-Aziz were also involved, doing their best to stop people from fighting.
Afterwards Abdel-Aziz (who it should be stressed is also Nurmagomedov’s managers in addition to being Vice-President of WSOF) told reporters what he had witnessed during the initial confrontation inside the arena.
“Nate went to Khabib and they just got talking,” Abdel-Aziz told MMAFighting.com. “They exchanged words and Nate threw a punch. I saw Nate throw a punch.”
Abdel-Aziz went on to state that Nick and Nate Diaz would now be banned from attending WSOF events as a result of their actions this past weekend.
“I can’t have Nick and Nate come to a World Series of Fighting event again,” Abdel-Aziz said. “I like these guys, but if they’re not going to show me respect coming to the show, how can I let them back in?
“You’ve just got to be more professional in MMA. Nate and Nick, all the times I talk to them, they’re good guys, but they need to start making a (positive) impression. I know they sell better because they don’t care, but you’re going to make people not like you if you do stuff like that. I know they don’t care, it’s attention, fights, guys want to fight each other. But you know what, fight each other in the cage. It was disappointing, to be honest with you.”
