During UFC 223 fight week in April, SBGi’s Artem Lobov had words with Khabib Nurmagomedov and his cohorts. When then UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor heard about it, he dragged a dozen members of his hangers-on away from a losing argument with a doorknob, got on a plane, and flew to New York to attack ‘The Eagle’. They learned from their media group that Nurmagomedov would be on a fighter bus, snuck into the parking garage, and then ran around haplessly making grrrrr noises, until McGregor himself threw a hand truck at a window.
The fighter they were attempting to intimidate was greatly amused, and on Saturday took the title that had been held by McGregor. The fighter they were supporting ended up being pulled from his fight, due to his role in the hapless attack. Two innocent fighters were injured by McGregor to the point they couldn’t fight. And UFC women’s strawweight champ Rose Namajunas, who travels with an Emotional Support Dog, was badly shaken.
Namajunas’s coach Trevor Wittman appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show, and said rightly that the UFC use of the footage to hype the UFC 229 main event between Nurmagomedov and McGregor was in “poor taste.”
He also said Namajunas hasn’t gotten over it.
She doesn’t leave her house, said Wittman, as transcribed by Jesse Holland for MMA Mania. It’s still there. She doesn’t go in public places. When you’re in a public place and there’s people everywhere, you’re going to be like ‘Oh my god, what could happen?’ Like if you’re involved in a 9/11 bombing, it’s gonna be hard to be in a city scenario. Every time you get in an elevator you’re gonna think of it.
