‘We even have emotions’: Khabib suggests anti-Dagestani stance in protection of Moscow Metro assault, explains Conor McGregor joke

Khabib Nurmagomedov has questioned the reporting surrounding a brutal assault on the Moscow Metro, calling out the Russian media for supposedly putting emphasis on the attackers being from Dagestan.

Roman Kovalev was awarded a medal for bravery after stepping in to defend a lady when she was reportedly being harassed by a bunch of three males on the Moscow underground.

Kovalev was left with extreme facial accidents after being brutally crushed by a trio from Dagestan, in scenes had been extensively shared on social media and shocked Russia. 

READ MORE: ‘They acted like beasts’: MMA coach warns thugs who savagely beat man in Moscow subway assault ‘will study good & unhealthy in jail’

However talking at an occasion held by his Eagle FC MMA promotion in Sochi over the weekend, Dagestani former UFC light-weight champion Khabib took subject with a lot of the protection relating to the incident.

Based on the 33-year-old star, the headlines highlighted the truth that the trio had been from Dagestan, when he argued their nationality was not essentially related.        

“Somebody beats somebody up – in all places they write Dagestanis,” an animated Khabib instructed members of the media.   

“We even have emotions – there are three.5 million Dagestanis, if not four million of us.

“I believe it’s flawed – when one individual does the flawed factor – to write down in all of the media ‘Dagestanis, Dagestanis’.

“These individuals who do unhealthy issues – there are 15-20 of them, properly 30, properly, let’s spherical it as much as 100.

“However there are no less than three.5 million Dagestanis. There are intelligentsia, there are scientists, athletes, medical doctors.

“There are individuals who very worthily characterize not solely Dagestan, however all of Russia.

“However as quickly as one sick individual does one thing unhealthy, all of the media, together with you, throw it on the market that Dagestanis did this and that.”

Khabib added: “For instance, what was the title of the man who acquired an award? Roman Kovalev. All of the media wrote man was given an award after being crushed up by three Dagestanis.

“What for? Not a single individual from the media even is aware of the names and surnames of those three sick individuals.

“Why does everybody write Dagestani? I’m additionally Dagestani. I disagree with that. Why write within the plural?”

Khabib pointed to different incidents throughout Russia and its multi-ethnic inhabitants the place, based on the UFC icon, emphasis was not positioned on the ethnicity of the perpetrators.

“Ninety p.c of the media write this manner. When did you ever see no less than one good, constructive piece of reports about Dagestan within the final 10 years?

“Effectively, let’s exclude tales that Khabib gained one thing. Did anybody write something from the massive media? And someplace, for instance, in Perm or Kazan, an individual goes out and shoots a complete faculty – then nobody writes something [about his ethnicity].”

Khabib himself confronted criticism from some quarters for utilizing the Metro assault to taunt former Octagon rival Conor McGregor.

Referring to the bravery award bestowed on 25-year-old Kovalev by the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, Khabib shared an image of McGregor on Instagram together with the message: The place’s my medal from Bastrykin? A gaggle of Dagestanis additionally beat me up.”

The remark was a jibe at McGregor relating to his defeat to Khabib of their 2018 grudge match in Las Vegas, which was adopted by a mass melee involving the Irishman and members of Khabib’s crew contained in the Octagon.

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Assault sufferer Kovalev later stated he noticed “nothing unhealthy” within the submit from Khabib, who himself stated on Sunday it was “extra of a joke.”

“Folks might have understood it in several methods. There are individuals who took it with humor, and there are individuals who took it as if I used to be supporting these guys [attackers].

“Nobody of their proper thoughts might help the brutal actions of those three individuals.

“That needs to be clear to everybody… I believe individuals who know me understood accurately what I meant,” stated Khabib.