LAS VEGAS – Three UFC 329 stars are being fined for their celebrations after their wins.
At a monthly meeting Wednesday, the Neva Athletic Commission approved $2,500 fines for Max Holloway, Paddy Pimblett, and Gable Steveson. All three fighters exited the cage between their finishes and the official decision reading by Bruce Buffer during the July 11 event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. As a result, NAC executive director Jeff Mullen temporarily withheld portions of their fight purses.
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While discussing the matter Wednesday, chairman Dallas Haun flashed back to the infamous UFC 229 incident involving Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. Haun said the commission started cracking down on the rule following the post-fight brawl that broke out after Nurmagomedov leaped out of the cage to attack McGregor’s cornermen.
“We had close to 10 minutes of complete chaos,” Haun said. “When it was over, the police holding cells in the back of T-Mobile Arena were full of people handcuffed, laying on their stomachs. In the city of Las Vegas, we want our guests to have a good time, but we also want them to be safe. That one incident caused the commission to take a very firm stance with that. We’re very clear with the fighters, again, before they enter the cage, ‘Do not leave the cage for any reason.’ These three items, they’re jumping the cage to shake Dana’s hand. We appreciate the difference. Someone from the crowd behind Dana screaming something could change that in an instant. While we’re not comfortable and we don’t like doing these instances, for the safety of the crowd and having learned from UFC 229 in 2018, we feel very strongly about it.”
Longtime commissioner Anthony Marnell also chimed in, saying the commission should approach the UFC and ask for cooperation in cracking down on outside-the-cage celebrations – or else stricter penalties will follow.
“I appreciate what’s happening, but at the same time it’s a non-starter,” Marnell said. “There’s another issue here, too, which is the jurisdiction of the inspectors with the fighter. The whole idea is to be on and with the fighter from beginning to end for all kinds of reasons that we didn’t experience that night. When they jump the cage, we don’t have inspectors there. We can’t see. We lose control of our jurisdiction and our job as an athletic commission over these fighters. I think there’s the safety of the environment and the crowd, but there’s also the jurisdictional and regulatory issue. I think that it would be appropriate, and as we all consider this for today, I think some ideas to think about, chair, is you can stay pretty consistent with past practice.
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“But I think there needs to be an ask – not a message or a warning – of the UFC, which we have always been able to communicate with, to step in and partner with us on this with their fighters. They usually have just as much success regulating themselves as we do them. I think if we can make that request of them, maybe through executive director Mullen, we don’t need to air this out in a meeting like this. If we can’t get anywhere, I think we have to reconvene and talk about much more serious penalties in our regulations for this infraction. Hopefully we won’t have to go there and do that. We’ve done it before way back in the day. We can come up with a very firm penalty for leaving the cage. That’s my thoughts on it. I agree with it 100 percent. I get the celebration. I get the emotion that goes on between all these guys, including Dana and his positive energy for everything that’s going on. It just can’t happen any more.”
The decision to withhold a portion of fighters’ pay for cage hopping is not unheard of. At UFC 300, Diego Lopes found himself in a similar position and was ultimately fined $2,500. Weeks later at UFC 303, Mayra Bueno Silva was slapped with the same $2,500 fine.
The commission’s decision to enforce the rule and issue fines has been criticized by some, including Pimblett’s manager, Graham Boylan of Intensiti Fighter Management, who voiced his displeasure in an Aug. 21 text to MMA Junkie.
“For the record, this rule needs to be changed,” Boylan wrote. “Yes, it’s the fight game, and systems need to be in play to make it all work, but this rule does nothing to support that. It’s 2026. Apply a little common sense.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: ‘It just can’t happen anymore’: Nevada fines UFC 329 stars for celebrations
