Усман Нурмагомедов Абу-Дабид болсон зодооны улмаас баривчлагдаж, бизнесдээ хохирол амслаа

Did Usman Nurmagomedov and his droogies turn Saba Lazishvili into a kind of cult figure, the way Usman’s famous cousin Khabib did to Dillon Danis after UFC 229? That might be a silver lining from Wednesday’s violent altercation. Saba Lazishvili didn’t hesitate to let his hands fly after his pal Merab Dvalishvili was jumped in the hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi by six guys.

Lazishvili was dropping fools the way Dana White drops F-bombs, which is to say, as a matter of personal duty. As the Christmas season approaches, Saba is what the people want. Everyone wants their own Saba.

In fact, Real American Freestyle (RAF) appreciated his heroics enough to add him to RAF Abu Dhabi, replacing Usman’s older brother Umar Nurmagomedov against Urijah Faber. Talk about a wild weekend. Saba went from casually scrolling his phone during a Merab interview to becoming the star of the show.

Umar, of course, is the suspected catalyst for the attack. He and Merab have a mountain of beef stemming back from before they faced each other in the UFC in early 2025, and that mountain, which sits among the Greater Caucasus range, is what separates Georgia from Dagestan. Ali Abdelaziz, the manager of All Those Nurmagomedovs, referenced this mountain in his apology to entire country of Abu Dhabi.

How do you like that? He apologized to the whole freaking country. He knew that Usman was acting up, no doubt about it.

And today Usman and seven others — the five other dudes who swarmed in, and two others who filmed the attack — are all in a Yas Island jail. They were sentenced to six months of confinement, no gavels needed, and fined Dh300,000, which is about $81,700 American dollars. That’s a lot of kibble and a long time, and it remains to be seen if they will be forced to serve it. In any case, the Middle East isn’t a place for shenanigans.

Or as White said during the UFC 334 press conference when asked about the melee, “that is not a place to f*** around.”

Then again, Dana also said in a separate interview, “That stuff’s never good for business, it makes everybody involved look bad. And it’s unfortunate. We’re in the fight business, and crazy s*** happens.”

It does, it does. There was that time that Conor McGregor flew to New York — and into a fit of rage — after Khabib Nurmagomedov went at his pal Artem Lobov. McGregor tried to throw a dolly through a bus window. That particular episode was entirely good for business, and was even used to drum more business up on the UFC’s official promo material. UFC 229, when McGregor and Khabib squared off at long last, did around 2.4 million pay-per-view buys. Assaults, when captured on film, tend to resonate with a public when the two parties can be later put together in a more sanctioned atmosphere.

The thing is, Usman is a coveted, undefeated free agent. He has that recognizable last name, which helps his stock. The UFC is where he’s supposedly headed. He just finished out his contract with the PFL, beating a guy named Archie Colgan on Long Island in the summer, and essentially said “show me the money” during his post-fight interview. Diehards in the space understood he was headed to the UFC, and he showed up at the very next UFC event and was featured among the A-listers in attendance on the jumbotron.

Yet now everyone knows Usman, who got up to that TMZ s*** just in time to capitalize on it. Were his actions despicable? Cowardly? Reprehensible? Check, check, and check. Yet none of those words will work against him in the fight game. RAF knows this better than anybody. If Arman Tsarukyan doesn’t get up to extracurricular activity with Georgio Poullas, or if brawls aren’t breaking out after Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dillon Danis matches, it’s doubtful the brand is rolling as strong today.

Everyone will want to see Usman fight now. And everyone will be watching Saba, who, as his actions have informed us, doesn’t stand for tyranny. That dude can have a full career based on that one minute of mayhem.

Take it from Danis. After inciting Khabib’s wrath at UFC 229, he parlayed a lucrative career of his own out of it. He boxed Logan Paul. He grappled Gordon Ryan. He wrestled Arman Tsarukyan, Khamzat Chimaev and Colby Covington, all in RAF.

He lost them all, of course, and he backed out of more fights than should be remembered, but the point is he got insinuated into a heated situation and he capitalized on it. Lazishvili, who was released from jail on Friday, now heads straight to the RAF wrestling mats against Faber, who was originally supposed to wrestle Umar. That match itself was an extension of another feud that kicked up in Shanghai, when Faber’s protégé, Song Yadong, knocked Umar out in his last UFC fight.

Which plays into Usman’s fresh delinquencies.

You might remember he barely checked his impulse to elbow Song as the Chinese contender did a victory lap after knocking out Umar. Usman, a “react first, deal with the consequences later” type, plays by a different set of rules. He sees his family as sacred enough to defend, or to avenge, or to protect, which he further sees as deeply principled and loyal — something, if we are to trust his implications, is lacking in American culture.

The Nurmagomedovs’ bloodlines run deeper than all the whimsical fellows around them.

And really, that seems to be the case.

The chorus that has gone up since Wednesday is what enhances the dynamic. The reactions were many. We had Ilia Topuria chiming in, calling Usman and his gang “absolute cowards.” There was Sean Strickland, seeing it as commentary on a broader Muslim propensity, fomenting darker feelings. The Nurmagomedov whisperer, Daniel Cormier, even chimed in, expressing his disappointments with Usman, while Islam Makhachev said that “whatever happened today was all started by Merab.”

Even McGregor, who by default factors into all Nurmagomedov studies, posted that he loves the “#ConorWasRight #ConorWasRightAllAlong” hashtags that were trending on social media.

Shame on you, Usman … and welcome to the UFC.

That part is inevitable, and if the UFC sticks him in there with … say, Ilia Topuria … it’ll be the biggest UFC debut since Brock Lesnar’s.

It’s a serious thing, jumping a man with the cameras rolling. It’s an image that people won’t soon forget. And because of that, it’s serious business too.

Justice in the real world is a matter of course, while justice in a cage is, without fail, an event worth tuning in for.