Team Nurmagomedov punished for viral brawl, Merab Dvalishvili freed, UFC 334 preview | The Craic

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Welcome back to The Craic, ladies and gentlemen. And I suppose on a fight week like this, the big annual trip to Madison Square Garden, Josh Hokit, you know, speed running his way into the title conversation, you'd probably suspect that we will be in fact, spending this show previewing one of the biggest cards of the year historically, the big New York show. However, well, on Wednesday, we had a video of Merab Dvalishvili being attacked in an Abu Dhabi hotel lobby during an interview by Usman Nurmagomedov and some of his team, it would seem. This had various angles which have been explored throughout the week, over the last two days, should I say. Over and on Crown, we have covered this extensively on the channel you are watching now. We have covered extensively. The Boys in the Back yesterday had She Loves the Gloves on, who did an amazing job of providing context between the Georgian and Russian situation, which has perhaps fueled this. Please go and see that later for more context on what has happened here. This morning, there are reports that six members of team Nurmagomedov will be facing six months in prison, a sentence of six months in prison based on this attack.

It is all going off, ladies and gentlemen, and we've had debates over the last few days. Has Merab's issue in Georgia, by slapping one of the team members, is this justified in terms of a retaliation attack? It seems the Abu Dhabi authorities do not think so, because today we have this report from the National in Abu Dhabi, and I will read from this just to give you a view of the context here.

This is the report from the National. The Abu Dhabi Criminal Court has convicted 10 people in connection with a violent altercation in a Yazdha Island hotel between Usman Nurmagomedov, his associates and Merab Dvalishvili. Six defendants were sentenced to six months in prison, fined 300,000 dirham each, and ordered to be deported after serving their sentences for disturbing public security, causing panic and endangering lives, Abu Dhabi Judicial Department said in a statement. Two others were fined 50,000 dirham each for disturbing public security and assaulting others.

The remaining two people involved in the brawl were sentenced to six months in prison, fined 300,000 dirham each, and ordered to be deported for violating privacy by using information technology to film and publish footage of the brawl. The court also ordered the confiscation of their phones and deletion of the footage. Now, Ariel Helwani did a breakout video earlier today on Uncrowned and provided some context on this. RAF have also reported that Merab and Saba have been released. These are the people who are set upon by Usman Nurmagomedov on his team. And we can deduce from that that those were the two fined 50,000 dirham each for disturbing public security and assaulting others. We have seen video now of Merab and Saba outside of custody. They have been making videos. They have been greeted by their team members. Jigga Chakadze has posted a picture alongside them. We can...

It is inferred in this article that Usman Nurmagomedov is among the people who have been sentenced to six months in prison. And we also know now that Saba, the lad who has become famous because of his reaction to this attack and his relentless pursuit of Merab's assailants, it seems he is now facing Uroia Faber at this RAF card in Abu Dhabi, which is a fight that... which is a grappling match that Umar was meant to take part in. It has been theorized for the last two days that he was involved in the attack.

We cannot confirm that that confirms that he is, but that is the situation we're looking at. Saba is now on that card. Merab and him have been released. A lot to get through today. And of course, as I said, it is UFC 334 There's a lot of Josh Hokit at the press conference to get through after we get through all of this stuff. I am so happy to be joined by Chuck Mindenhall and Ben Fowlkes, who I will bring in shortly before we hear from our lovely friends over at Kalyshe.