This is INSANE.

Well, the biggest free agent in the entire sport right now won't be signing any new deals in the next six months because he will be in an Abu Dhabi prison. Apparently, the justice system there is an express lane. The brawl that went down and went viral with former UFC champion Marab just a few days ago has already been resolved, at least on the legal end of things. While initially all parties involved were detained, Marab was let go and fined for the distribution In the introduction of the fight video, Kind of wild. A fine that RAF is apparently going to fit the bill for. How nice of them. But Usman Nurmagomedov and his crew, the instigators of the incident, all got six months in jail, plus a fine that will be around 80 grand US each. And they are all being deported after their sentence, meaning they're no longer welcome on Fight Island, which, fun fact, is where all this went down. They also won't be able to go to anywhere in the UAE, for that matter, but Fight Island is obviously a big one. Now, this is a developing story, or rather a story that just happened, and it's not always clear what details that are being reported are 100% accurate, so take the info I just relayed with a grain of salt, but that is what is being reported, and of course, I think the broader strokes here are probably pretty accurate, and man, you know, in the reaction video I did to the brawl just the other day, I talked about how there could end up being really serious consequences for these types of things. I mentioned specifically, you know, that- These are crimes, technically. Pretty much everywhere in the world, you're not allowed to run up on somebody and smack them in the face. And for Usman, he's learning the hard way that doing it in the wrong place is going to have much more serious repercussions. Think about what Conor McGregor did in New York. Dude went apeshit on a bus, hurt several people, and what did he get? Five days of community service and anger management classes? And that took over a month, I think, to play out. And even after he was initially arrested, McGregor made bail and was able to travel with no restrictions through his trial. And he's not even a citizen of the United States. Usman fights and records the fight with Marab, gets arrested, stays in jail, gets convicted of disturbing public security, causing panic and endangering lives, and is sentenced to six months of hard time before we even hit the weekend. That is a wild difference in outcomes. But these are different justice systems, so I think the real The real moral of the story, the real lesson here, is don't go doing stupid ---- in Abu Dhabi because they do not play games over there. My guess is next time the UFC heads over to Fight Island for a card, everybody is going to be on their best behavior at weigh-ins and the pressers, just shaking hands and making nice. The dudes who recorded it for Usman got six months. They didn't even fight anybody. Absolute madness. Now, is the sentence justified? I mean, I don't know. I certainly think what was done is criminal. What that should warrant in terms of punishment, I'll leave you and a civics class to think about, but whatever the case, it's the reality of it. And the reality of it is that Usman might have just completely fucked himself over for the dumbest reason possible. Forget the whole jail sentence part, that's already life-altering, but as I mentioned at the start, hands down, he is the hottest free agent in the sport right now. Usman is undefeated, he was PFL champion, and of course, is a Nurmagomedov. That name is gold in this sport, and you can make a whole bunch of money having it. The thing is, though, I gotta think that this hurts Usman's chances of getting signed by the UFC. Now, I already thought of that before he got locked up for half a year, but I think the bigger problem now is going to be that he will never be able to step foot in the UAE again. And for the UFC, even if they were going to look past the fact that he assaulted a former UFC champion and is just generally an absolute wild man, now the major market that he would be the most popular in, the place where he could get the most leverage in terms of UFC box office, will no longer be available to him, and I gotta thank for the UFC between the headaches he would inevitably cause and the fact that he can't even fight in the one place that they would want him to fight, it's just really not worth signing the dude anymore. Now, I do think somebody will sign him, this is cage fighting after all, it's not like he's gonna be shunned by the entire sport, but his chance at the real big time and the real big money of an undefeated potential champion in He might have just pissed all of that away so he could slap Merab once I mean, what a terrible value proposition there. You can either be a potential UFC champion and star, or you can slap Merab once and never get to reach the highest level of the thing you've dedicated your entire life to. Gee, I don't know. Let me think about that one. And it's not like this was a heat-of-the-moment decision. That, I could actually maybe defend a little bit. These are professional fighters with potentially abnormal levels of testosterone, and sometimes when a guy gets in your face, you just react. I would be way more forgiving of ruining your life in that situation. Not forgiving, but more understanding at least. But no, Usman planned this thing out completely. He had a whole crew, he had a ******* documentary team ready to record it, and he walked up to Marab all the way across the lobby with the intention of slapping him in the face. He thought this out and all the time Time in the world to stop himself and still just... Did it anyway. That is a massive impulse control issue. I mean, I guess I don't think it's surprising now, looking back at his insane reaction to his brother's knockout, that Usman is the kind of guy to make reckless decisions. Then again, I can't at least say that one was in the moment, so I'll give him that. That's your brother that just got knocked out. But it still shows a pattern of poor decision-making. Song Yadong wasn't coming to fight you, bro. He's just celebrating a victory. What in your history with Song Yadong would ever make you think I think that he was charging you for checking on your brother. Chill out and let the doctors take care of the guy who's unconscious that you care about. Like I said, I'm not going to speculate on what kind of sentence is deserved for this kind of crime, but I will say this. For the first time, I think that I can remember a fighter has faced consequences. Real consequences for a behavior and culture that is way too commonplace in mixed martial arts. And what's so stupid is these dust-ups don't even do anything. Like, this is one of the worst ones we've seen, and Mar- Rob got a busted up nose, maybe a black eye? How is that worth the potential consequences? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the results of these stupid fights have not been worse, but it just makes no sense. What do you get out of landing a few weak shots on another fighter you don't like? I know there's no logic to it, it's an emotional thing, but maybe there should be. And with this happening now, with a fighter getting jailed for half a damn year over one of these things we've seen a million times, I hope it does cool the culture down a bit. I hope it makes the next fighter- think twice. It probably won't, not in the US at least, but I stand by my theory that next time you see fighters in Abu Dhabi, they will not be ******* around in the slightest. What an insane sequence of events the last few days. I don't think any of us have ever thought that any of these situations would ever end in jail time. Six months is no joke. That's a crazy amount of time. It doesn't sound like much, but 180 days of your life that you don't get to dictate literally anything? And not only that, that kind of thing sticks with you the rest of your life. It's not just the time lost. It's not just, in Usman's case, that he'll face career repercussions. For the rest of his life, he's an ex-con. Now, luckily for Usman, he probably won't have trouble making money with his high-level skills after he gets out. But what about his crew? Are those guys gonna be able to go six months and then have that con label? Think about your bills, your family, all the ---- that happens if you were unable to work or live for half a year. For those guys that were with Usman, the impact is going to be massively disproportionate. And, they all owe 80 grand, too. And all that for a stupid hotel lobby brawl. What a dumbass thing to do. And I must say, very selfish on Usman's part. Because of the consequences his crew now faces. Like I said, he'll be alright, but they may not be. The only other aspect of this thing that I'm worried about is more escalation. Not from Usman, of course. At least, not for the next six months. But it's not like he doesn't have friends. And it's not like Merab is gonna be hard to find. So, my hope is truly that this does not get worse as a result of this, but I fear that it probably will. Just hopefully promotions are aware going forward of the potential security risk of inviting any of these parties to one of their shows. Let's hope cooler heads prevail, but I am not going to hold my breath. Man, what an insane incident. The fight itself and the video was already pretty wild, but the fact that just a few days later, everybody got thrown in the slammer for half a year just made this a situation I had to comment on again, but I gotta know what you guys think of this. Do you think this sentence was justified? What should happen with Usman's career? Do you think Merab has any fault in the situation? I want to hear all your thoughts on this absolutely crazy ass ----. Again, I gotta thank Luke and Tom for putting this together so fast. The dudes are the real MVPs. Go watch them talking about the sport on title picture with Alex. It's great stuff. I gotta thank our channel members. They make making videos this fast so much easier. Fight fans hit the join button if you want to be Become a member as well. Comment. As I said, I want to read them. Like and subscribe because who's putting videos out this fast, huh? And thank you so much for watching. What a crazy ******* week.