UFC welterweight Kamaru Usman and manager Ali Abdelaziz were involved in a physical altercation with a group of event goers last week. Now details concerning the fracas have emerged.
Abdelaziz and Usman were at the inaugural Professional Fighters League (PFL) event back on June 7 from within the Hulu Theater in New York. During the event, Usman and his manager were allegedly assaulted by a group of event goers.
Speaking on the final edition of The MMA Hour, Usman decided to offer some details on the incident.
“A bunch of drunk fans were coming into the auditorium from the back, because the way the event was set up it was like an auditorium style. You come in with everyone’s back towards you and you’re looking down towards the cage, so we go out to get some water to drink, we’re thirsty, so we’re coming back in, and while we’re coming in all of a sudden the national anthem’s playing.
“We stop and I’m like, ‘Hey, hey, hey, stop, we don’t want to walk through the crowd while the national anthem’s playing so let’s let this thing finish up.’
“The guy turns around and looks at me and goes, ‘Shut the F up you N-word. What are you gonna do?”
“At this point I’m like, okay this dude is clearly drunk and he’s serious and he’s right in my face, so I’m like, ‘Back up, you’re in my space.’ And the guy goes, ‘You ain’t going to do nothing, what do you think? You’re f’ing tough?’ I think he’s going to swing on me because he’s more and more aggressive so I push him off me and I’m like, ‘Bro, back up.’
“Of course, my manager’s not happy with the situation and then a guy grabs him while he’s trying to get near me, towards me, and the guy grabs him, and the guy is still coming towards me so I push him off.”
“I turn around for us to leave and all of a sudden while my back is turned, I get hit in the back. Boom. Then it’s like three of them jump on Ali and then three of them jump on me and now it’s like I gotta defend myself. I’m in self defense mode and I’m trying to draw one guy off me and it’s all just a crazy commotion, guys are trying to jump on — and the whole time, I couldn’t believe the situation was happening. There was one point I had a smile on my face because I’m like, ‘That just happened to me.’”
“Hours and hours later, I see that it’s all over the internet and the thing’s starting to pick up steam and the crazy thing is the headlines that they’re putting on some of these. I saw one headline that said ‘UFC fighter and manager attack a fan for kneeling for the national anthem’ and I’m like, ‘Who dropped the ball there?’ Do they not realize that I’m black? Do they not realize that I’m African-American? Why would they write a headline like that?
“Obviously, they just want clicks and they just want things like that, but the whole thing is just funny to me how big they made it. It was just stupid, obviously drunk fans wanting to act tough.”
“I’ve got to talk to him about that, but it’s not a big deal to me. That’s not what we do. Obviously, I wasn’t there to fight and it just happened. I’m not the guy to call the cops. Some people will. A situation happened and I’m moving forward, I’m over it.”
