Jorge Masvidal may be facing a battery charge after his sucker-punch attack on Colby Covington outside a Miami beach restaurant earlier this week, but Khabib Nurmagomedov believes that’s it’s ‘Chaos’ who should be punished for provoking ‘Gamebred’ in the first place.
“If you are stronger than someone inside the octagon, it does not mean you can insult his children,” Nurmagomedov stated on Twitter.
“No one has the right to insult someone’s family. Once you have gone down that path, then be ready to back up your words. You were attacked by professional fighter, the same as you are, your own size, and you go press charges against him to the police?
“I think all welterweights should refuse to fight Colby, just don’t accept fights with him, let him sit without a fight, it will probably significantly affect him and all fighters who even think of insulting families, who is provoking the fighters to look for someone in restaurants to deal with him.”
Khabib’s sympathies lying with Masvidal may well be due to his own experience of being subject to a below-the-belt war of words aimed at his family from Conor McGregor at the height of their rivalry.
In that instance it all came to a head when Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor by submission and then proceeded to jump out of the Octagon and attack other members of his camp who were badmouthing him, while some of Khabib’s entourage also jumped into the Octagon and tried to trade blows with ‘The Notorious’.
While Khabib has made his stance on the matter clear, there has been a mixed response in general from the MMA community to Masvidal’s ambush of his rival, with some such as Sean Strickland blasting Covington for getting the police involved, while on the other hand Rafael dos Anjos has called for ‘Gamebred’ to be stripped of his ‘BMF’ title.
One fighter who has kept his opinion on the situation to himself so far however is none other than Colby Covington himself.
