UFC lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov was not impressed when he saw his character on the EA Sports UFC 2 video game celebrating a victory by making the sign of the cross.
Nurmangomedov is a devout Sunni Muslim. The fighter in no way disparaged the Christian faith, but simply expressed his discomfort at his character engaging in a Christian celebration.
Imagine ‘Cowboy” Cerrone’s reaction if his character yelled “ALLAHU AKBAR” ever time he won. Same thing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDLPrtxtVcD
“I’m a MUSLIM and not Baptized,” he tweeted. “Please @EASPORTSUFC edit my after fight celebration. I have a lot of Muslim fans and you have to respect it.”
EA Sports responded to the fighter, apologized, and will change the celebration.
“Hello Khabib,” wrote EA Sports. “Just wanted to reach out and let you know that we’ve seen your concern in regards to your after fight celebration. We’ve informed our development team about this issue and will change the celebration in our next update. Apologies is this has offended you in any way.”
The fighter accepted the apology.
“I’m Muslim, Alhamdulillah. I have nothing against Christians,” wrote Nurmagomedov. “Every man in this life has his own way, and my way is Islam. Developers of the game made mistake. Let’s be honest, every human being made mistakes, and I’m not holding a grudge. They apologized and promised to fix it. Hopefully, next time they wouldn’t make mistakes like this, and take account everybody’s religion.”
Khabib Nurmagomedov fights Tony Ferguson at UFC on FOX 19 on April 16th at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. It will be his first fight in nearly two years, due to a series of injuries.
