Namo Fazil claims 15 Chechens stormed his hotel room during weight cut before Contender Series loss

Namo Fazil has alleged he was ambushed by a group of 15 Chechen fighters in his hotel room while cutting weight the day before his UFC Contender Series loss to Kaik Brito, which ended by third-round knockout on Tuesday night.

Fazil posted a video to social media on Wednesday explaining why he felt his performance was below his usual standard. He described a knock at his hotel room door mid-weight cut — at a point where he still had three to four kilograms left to shed — after which a large group entered and one of the men struck him twice.

“There was a knock at the door,” Fazil said. “I said to my coach, ‘Could you please open the door?’ They confronted me. My coaches stood up while I was still wrapped in blankets. There were 15 of them, and the 15 people who came were Chechen. One of them suddenly came at me and slapped me. Then he slapped me a second time.”

Fazil said his coaches physically restrained him to protect his upcoming fight, and that the group fled once a scuffle broke out. Police were called, and there was reported commotion in the hotel lobby.

“My coaches were holding me back, saying, ‘Namo, you’re not going to fight,’” he said. “I told him, basically, ‘Be a man. Let me finish my fight first, then we can settle this.’ My coaches intervened, and once a scuffle broke out, they became scared and ran off.”

Fazil appeared to suffer no serious physical injuries in the altercation, but said the psychological toll affected his performance against Brito in what had been a competitive, back-and-forth contest before the stoppage.

“At the end of the day, this isn’t a Van Damme movie,” Fazil said. “There were 15 people. If they really wanted to, they could have done much worse to me. Clearly, they had some kind of objective.”

He added that he was reluctant to speak out but felt the circumstances warranted an explanation. “I didn’t want to come out afterward making excuses. But I believe this needs to be talked about so people understand why I wasn’t at my best.”

UFC CEO Dana White had already alluded to an incident at the fighter hotel during his post-event remarks, saying “some shit” had happened without providing specifics. These remain allegations at this stage. Reports have linked middleweight fighter Baisangur Susurkaev to the incident, though the full details have not been independently verified.