Khabib Nurmagomedov’s being forced to deboard from a Frontier Airlines flight in January was the biggest news in the MMA world at the time. In a video of the exchange that went viral online, ‘The Eagle’, sitting in the emergency exit row, could be seen arguing with a flight attendant who wanted him to take a different seat. The crew apparently didn’t trust his English skills.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) policy dictates that someone sitting in the emergency row of an airplane needs to be proficient in English, which the crew felt ‘The Eagle’ wasn’t. After a brief back-and-forth where Nurmagomedov pleaded he could speak English proficiently, he chose to get off the flight and take the next flight from Alaska to California.

The former UFC lightweight champ would later allege that the incident may have be racially motivated, and as you can imagine, found the whole thing very shameful. So naturally, his good friend, protege, and successor, Islam Makhachev finds the whole thing hilarious and has started to make jokes at his friend’s expense.

Makhachev took to his Instagram Story, where he posted a picture of himself sitting in the emergency exit row with one of his friends in his lap, along with a hilarious caption. “We flew to Dagestan like this 😂 and no one kicked us of the plane,” he wrote.

It isn’t clear if Makhachev traveled the entirety of the flight like that or has his friend sit on his lap, briefly, for the photo, but it speaks to his sense of humor. Although fans don’t often get to see it, Makhachev is a pretty funny guy. The Dagestani’s endearingly halting pronouncements like “who give” or “send two-three years to Dagestan and forget:” or the evergreen “striking is good but no one check grappling” have become popular memes among fans.

Dana White confirms Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria still in play

Dana White has confirmed that Ilia Topuria will fight Islam Makhachev or Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 on June 28. “Yeah, there’s a lot of moving parts right now, and yeah, that’s pretty accurate,” the UFC CEO said in a press conference on Thursday.

Sources from his camp have claimed that Islam Makhachev is waiting for the results of the upcoming Belal Muhammad vs. Jack Della Maddalena UFC 315 clash this weekend to make his next move. If ‘JDM’ beats the champ, Muhammad, who is friends with Makhachev, the Dagestani is expected to move up to 170 and fight for the title there.

If, however, ‘Bully B’ retains his title, Makhachev will probably say at 155 and defend the title. Either way, we know for sure now that Topuria will be fighting for the lightweight title on the International Fight Week card this June. And almost everyone, including Topuria, would hope it is against Makhachev.

‘La Leyenda’, after all, is undefeated and was on his way to becoming the greatest featherweight of all time. On the other hand, Makhachev’s four successful lightweight title defenses are already a record. He has developed a lethal striking game to go with his already-best-in-sport level grappling, and looks nigh unbeatable. In the current times, a fight between the two could be a legacy-defining Avengers-level canonical event in MMA history.

Quality-wise, it would be the best fight that could be made in the entire sport at the moment. Add everything else that Topuria and Makhachev bring to the table, and the fight has all the makings of being one of the biggest fights in the history of the sport. This would not be the case if Topuria were to fight Charles Oliveira at UFC 317. What do you think about Islam Makhachev’s joke about Khabib’s flight nightmare?