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UFC fighter Dennis Buzukja has been suspended and fined by the Nevada Athletic Commission after he got into an altercation with a fan at UFC 310 this past December.
On Wednesday, the commission approved an adjudication agreement where Buzukja faces a nine-month suspension along with a $2,500 fine and $157.04 in attorney fees. The suspension runs through Sept. 6, 2025.
Buzukja can have the nine-month suspension reduced to a six-month suspension if he completes approved community service in the state of Nevada. He would then be eligible to return on or after June 6, 2025.
The entire incident revolved Buzukja getting into a physical altercation with a fan after he was cornering his friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling for his fight against Movsar Evloev on the card.
Several videos surfaced after the event that showed UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili getting heated with the same fan, who allegedly grabbed his arm and shouted at him as he walked back to the locker room following Sterling’s fight.
Security eventually intervened but not before Buzukja actually started throwing punches with the fan.
Dvalishvili later blamed the incident on the fan escalating the situation with accusations that he was connected to the same team that represents Umar Nurmagomedov. At the time, Dvalishvili was preparing to face Nurmagomedov at UFC 311.
“I went and approached him and I just put his hand down, I was trying to deescalate and tell him, ‘Yo, calm down, bro. Relax,’” Buzukja said about the incident this past December. “Merab was going away, I just wanted to tell him to relax, have some respect.
“Then he cracked me first, actually, he cracked me with a nice little left hook and then it was just instinct to hit him back. Then security came in, but part of me is like, ‘Should I just drop the bucket and just jump over and start swinging?’ Just go full, f*cking degenerate, but I’m glad it didn’t happen that way.”
Regardless of how the whole thing started, the commission made it clear that further incidents like this one won’t be tolerated, especially after a similar altercation happened at UFC 300 involving UFC lightweight star Arman Tsarukyan.
Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Dallas Haun issued a stern warning to Buzukja about his behavior, especially after he failed to appear at the hearing after he was expected to speak on his behalf. Haun went as far as saying that another altercation could lead to a lifetime ban for Buzukja in the state of Nevada.
“I don’t go for this,” Haun said during the meeting. “Someone taking a swing at the crowd. We can’t have this. I know we have a precedent, the fact that he’s not on the phone, hasn’t shown up, this is his one chance with us.
“Anything more like this and he won’t be in Nevada ever again. Swinging in the crowd is unacceptable. We cannot have it.”
Haun further expressed his disdain for altercations between fans and fighters at the end of the meeting while suggesting that harsher punishments could be handed down if another incident like this one happens again.
“Our No. 1 priority here is the safety of the fighters and right behind that is the safety of the fans,” Haun said. “I think going forward, while we’ve set precedent, I want us to take a good hard look at it if this happens again The nine month [suspension], the six months, the community service, luckily no one was hurt.
“But tragically someone may be hurt so I want the commission and executive director [Jeff] Mullen for us to review how we look at this thing going forward. We may set precedent aside. We can’t have that..”
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
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