UFC icon Khabib Nurmagomedov escorted off flight after dispute with flight crew

UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov was escorted off a flight after footage captured on the plane recorded a dispute between him and the crew.

The clip, which quickly circulated on X/Twitter on January 12 and appears to have been filmed by a passenger aboard the plane, showed the retired MMA fighter talking to a flight attendant.

While it’s unclear what Nurmagomedov said at the clip’s start, the flight attendant can be heard responding with “What we’re going to do is we’re either going to have you switch seats because my flight attendants are not allowing you to sit in that seat row, or you’re going to have to get off this plane.”

After Nurmagomedov is heard criticizing the decision as “not fair,” the staff member responded, “It is fair. I’m not going to do this back and forth. I will call a supervisor. You can either take a different seat or we can go ahead and escort you off the plane.

Not wanting to relocate, Nurmagomedov stood up and walked towards the plane’s exit.

While not immediately clear what caused the dispute – background noise made portions of the exchange difficult to parse – the same flight staff member can be heard elaborating that her colleagues were “not comfortable” with Nurmagomedov “sitting in the emergency exit row.”

Nurmagomedov followed up, stating “They [flight staff] asked me if I know English and I said yes.”

The plane’s crew may have wished for Nurmagomedov to move due to concerns he may not be able to understand safety guidelines written in English on the emergency exit hatch that he was seated next to, but this hasn’t been confirmed by Nurmagomedov or the airline involved.