Khabib Nurmagomedov has refuted UFC star Arman Tsarukyan’s claim that Vladimir Putin paid for his gym to be built in Dagestan.
Tsarukyan got onto the subject in an appearance on “PBD Podcast” and said that fighters belonging to Russia, like Nurmagomedov, are rewarded for their exploits on the global stage by the government.
“They take care of, for example, you go somewhere in Russia, if you’re a fighter or wrestler, they take care of you because you do something for your country,” he said.
And then he continued to draw on Nurmagomedov as an example, saying Vladimir Putin’s administration paid for his gym. “Even Khabib he got paid for his gym. Putin build for him a gym. You won a gold and you want to build your own gym, they give you money to build your own gym.”
Nurmagomedov disputed that claim in a comment on Instagram. “This is absolutely not true. No one ever paid for my bills or built gyms for me,” he wrote.
Nurmagomedov built a state-of-the-art facility in his native village of Sildi in Dagestan, opening in May last year, at a reported cost of $5 million, in order to fulfill his late father Abdulmanap’s dream. He said that the gym was built with the money he had earned during his fighting career, specifically his fight with Conor McGregor in October 2018.
He also has a branded “Khabib Gym” on Yas Island in the UAE that opened in 2023, and has previously expressed interest in building a facility in Gaza, Palestine.
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