Khabib Nurmagomedov has put an end to the “nonsense” disagreement between his cousin Abubakar.and UFC star Khamzat Chimaev.
The former UFC lightweight champion appeared in a video alongside the two fighters involved in the scuffle following Islam Makhachev’s lightweight title win at UFC 280.
“What happened yesterday does not show us well,” Khabib said in the video first published on Abubakar’s Instagram. “Neither me, nor Khamzat nor Abubakar. To tell you the truth, we are tired of this nonsense. Here we are gathered together as brothers, we hugged and Inshallah I hope that in the future we will only gather and fight for good reasons.”
While Nurmagomedov publicly settled the conflict between his teammates and Khamzat Chimaev, it was Ramzan Kadyrov—the tyrant accused of well-documented human rights abuses, including forced disappearances, torture, summary executions, and war crimes—who seemingly mediated the dispute.
The Chechen dictator posted a screenshot on his official Instagram account that showed him on a video call with UFC star Khamzat Chimaev and Abubakar Nurmagomedov, the two fighters involved in a physical altercation following UFC 280. In the caption, Kadyrov proclaimed that the scuffle was a mere “misunderstanding” and that he resolved the dispute between the two fighters.
Kadyrov’s involvement was evidently clear when Nurmagomedov made his comments while standing alongside Kadyrov’s right-hand man AbuZayed Vismuradov. Vismuradov, who goes by his nom-de-guerre Patriot, was placed on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list in 2018 for “extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” The U.S. government also accused him of an operation that “illegally detained and tortured individuals on the basis of their actual or perceived LGBTI status.”
Vismuradov, who is also the president of Kadyrov’s state-sanctioned Akhmat MMA fight club (another entity facing U.S. sanctions), has also been involved in overseeing Chechen troops being deployed to fight in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.