Yesterday, MMA Junkie’s Nolan King reported that the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) withheld the purses of Max Holloway, Paddy Pimblett, and Gable Steveson after they celebrated their respective victories by hopping the cage. For violating the rule, the commission has officially set their disciplinary hearings for Wednesday. The commission’s strict decision has already faced some serious pushback from Daniel Cormier, who found the rule utterly absurd. The former champion took to social media to voice his intense frustration regarding the impending sanctions.

“We are in a sport that, at times, can be ridiculous,” Cormier said in a recent YouTube video. “Yesterday, I saw on MMA Junkie that three fighters from UFC 329 are having sanctioning hearings for celebrations. I gotta be honest with you, that is probably the most ridiculous rule in mixed martial arts.” The UFC Hall of Famer continued his passionate rant by distinguishing between malicious fouls and harmless post-fight excitement.

“Look, man, we got rules, right?” Cormier added. “You can’t kick each other in the nuts. You should not poke each other in the eye, and you should not do certain things when you’re fighting. To tell a fighter not to celebrate with enthusiasm is absurd.” He then explicitly outlined exactly which athletes were being unfairly targeted for their cageside acrobatics.

“Because now you’re telling me that Max Holloway, Paddy Pimblett, and Gable Steveson are going to go in front of the Nevada State Athletic Commission because of their celebrations,” Cormier said. “They jumped on top of the cage.”

Cormier’s disdain toward the NSAC stems from his belief that fighters are naturally overwhelmed with emotions after winning pivotal career matchups. Despite his valid criticisms, there is a specific historical reasoning behind why the commission initially introduced and enforced this controversial boundary.

The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts do not explicitly prohibit fighters from celebrating their victories by hopping the cage. The athletic commission utilizes its extended and independent jurisdiction to actively prevent athletes from committing such misconduct. The rule is most commonly associated with protecting the physical safety of cageside personnel, including photographers, commentators, and scoring judges. The commission was forced to strictly enforce this perimeter following one of the darkest nights in promotional history.

Khabib Nurmagomedov was famously fined $500,000 and also received a nine-month suspension after flying over the cage to attack Conor McGregor’s team during the infamous UFC 229 brawl. The commission now aggressively aims to prevent such situations from ever escalating in the first place. The governing body takes immediate disciplinary action against violators by withholding their purses or fining them a certain percentage of their earnings. Recent enforcement of this specific rule has resulted in much smaller financial penalties for non-violent offenders.

The fine typically amounts to a minuscule charge taken directly from a fighter’s purse. The commission fined featherweight contender Diego Lopes $2,500 after he jumped the cage following his knockout victory over Sodiq Yusuff at UFC 300. It is widely expected that Holloway and the other penalized UFC 329 fighters could receive similar monetary fines once their hearings conclude. The persistent enforcement of these financial penalties has drawn harsh criticism from several prominent figures across the sport’s landscape.

Cormier is certainly not the only one who is livid over the NSAC’s rigid enforcement. Paddy Pimblett’s manager and Cage Warriors CEO, Graham Boylan, publicly argued that the rule needs to be permanently changed, implying that it no longer holds any relevance in 2026. The former two-division champion pressed on the subject even further by detailing his own personal connection to post-fight euphoria.

Daniel Cormier explains why fighters hop the cage after NSAC purse withholding controversy 

As a former competitive fighter himself, Daniel Cormier understands the wave of emotions fighters experience after winning a fight. He wanted to convey that Max Holloway, Paddy Pimblett, and Gable Steveson all achieved something astonishing at UFC 329. Despite the circumstances, ‘Blessed’ finally got his revenge against Conor McGregor 13 years after their last fight. Pimblett returned to the win column by beating Benoit Saint Denis in the co-main event, while Gable Steveson made his highly anticipated UFC debut by defeating Elisha Ellison.

Cormier explained that each athlete felt an overwhelming sense of euphoria that compelled them to scale the fence. He explicitly drew from his own championship experience to defend their spontaneous actions.

“In those three cases, those guys all experienced euphoria,” Cormier added. “You just can’t, because when something like that happens- when I fought Stipe Miocic, I knocked him out and I jumped on the cage because if you play out a hundred scenarios, most times you don’t get to that one. So when you get to that one, you get excited.”  

Though Cormier firmly connected his experience to the UFC 329 fighters, the Louisiana native was never actually fined by the commission after he scaled the cage at UFC 226. Even if the NSAC had penalized him at the time, his current stance on the rigid regulations would likely remain exactly the same. The three penalized fighters will now prepare to face the commission’s official judgement when their disciplinary hearings commence in Las Vegas on August 26, 2026.