Just days removed from a dominant submission victory against Conor McGregor at UFC 229, Khabib Nurmagomedov visited Chechnya to attend a banquet hosted by Ramzan Kadyrov in his honour. Dressed in a modest tracksuit, the UFC lightweight champion arrived without his usual entourage of UFC teammates and sat at the head of the table alongside the Chechen dictator. The two men posed for photos and celebrated the occasion as though they were brothers.
The banquet took place in Kadyrov’s palace in Grozny, a city he rebuilt after two catastrophic wars with Russia, with the support of the Kremlin.