UFC fighter Dennis Buzukja has received punishment for an altercation during a December event at T-Mobile Arena.
On Wednesday, the Nevada Athletic Commission suspended Buzukja (12-5 MMA, 1-3 UFC) nine month and fined him $2,500 with additional required legal fees of $157.04.
However, Buzukja’s suspension can be reduced to six months should he execute a community service plan approved by the commission, meaning he’d be eligible to compete again on June 6 rather than Sept. 6. Buzukja and representative Daniel Rubenstein of Ruby Sports & Entertainment presented the commission with a plan prior to Wednesday’s hearing.
Commissioner Alexander Chen outlined the plan, which would include 40 hours of community service at Big Brothers Big Sisters, Girls & Boys Club and/or Special Olympics.
The commission voted to approve the proposed plan Wednesday and largely pointed to past precedent (Arman Tsarukyan swiping at a UFC 300 fan in April), but chairman Dallas Haun indicated the commission might change that precedent going forward.
“I don’t go for this, someone taking a swing in the crowd,” Haun said. “We can’t have this. I know we have a precedent. The fact that he’s on the phone and hasn’t shown up, this is his one chance with us. Anything more like this, and he’ll never be in Nevada again. Swinging in the crowd is unacceptable. We cannot have it. But we have a precedent, and the community service better be done rigorously with commitment.”
“… Our No. 1 priority here is the safety of the fighters. Right behind that is the safety of the fans. I think going forward, while we’ve set precedent, I want to take a good, hard look if this happens again, the nine-month and the six-month and the community service. Luckily no one was hurt. Tragically someone may be hurt. I want the commission and executive director Mullen to review how we look at this thing going forward. We may set precedent aside. We can’t have that.”
Buzukja and teammate Merab Dvalishvili were both restrained during the altercation. The crowd member, Arman Tugaev, was later identified to be someone with connections to the Nurmagomedovs, who rivaled Dvalishvili ahead of their Jan. 11 title fight. Dvalishvili indicated Tugaev deliberately provoked the altercation and grabbed his arm before Buzukja threw punches.
Merab got into ANOTHER altercation with a fan after Aljamain Sterling lost to Mosvar Evloev.
#UFC310 pic.twitter.com/MBeKMmvQkZ
— InsideFighting (@InsideFighting_) December 8, 2024
Days after the incident, Buzukja also commented on the altercation.
“I don’t know if he had touched Merab as we were walking in, but somehow he got Merab’s attention and then Merab went and tapped his shoulder and just gave him the finger, and then the guy gave him the finger back or whatever,” Buzujka said on “The Weekly Scraps” podcast with Sterling. “He got all jumpy.
“Then as the fight finished and we’re walking back on the other side, this f*cking guy comes across the whole crowd and then goes and, you’ve seen the video, he grabs Merab’s arm and then says something to him in, I guess Russian or whatever, and Merab started going crazy. Then we got into a little physical altercation, but that was really it. So hopefully no charges pressed and we move on.”
