Former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov responded after videos of him being asked to exit a flight from the Las Vegas airport, taking to his X account to clarify his thoughts regarding the matter and ask what the basis for the decision to remove him was.

Videos shared over social media showed a flight attendant in conversation with Khabib, asking him to switch seats but the former UFC fighter disagreeing and calling it ‘unfair’.

Writing on X after the matter, Khabib wrote. “First of all, I need to clarify that it was Fly Frontier not AlaskaAir. Lady who comes to me with questions was very rude from the very beginning, even though I speak very decent English and can understand everything and agreed to assist, she still insists on removing me from my seat.”

Khabib, a Russian international who was the UFC lightweight champion from 2018 to 2021 before his early retirement from MMA, then questioned the reasons why he was asked to move. Deplaned despite his compliance and readiness to agree to what was being requested of him, the fighter alleged prejudice on behalf of the airline staff. “What was the base for that, racial, national or other one, I’m not sure,” wrote Khabib.

“But after 2 minutes of conversation, she called security and I was deplaned from this aircraft,” said Khabib, with the disagreement between him and the attendant resulting in supervisors being called to handle the situation.

However, Khabib was able to board a different seat soon after. The fighter was set to travel to California for UFC 311, where he is expected to be in the camp for Islam Makhachev in his bout against Arman Tsarukyan in the main event, as well as his cousin Umar Nurmagomedov against Merab Dvalishvili.

“After 1.5 hour I boarded another airline and left to my destination,” explained Khabib. However, the Russian fighter was quick to express his disappointment with the decision to deplane him when he was trying to be cordial with the airline staff: “I did my best to stay calm and respectful as you can see on the video. But those crew members could do better next time and just be nice with clients.”