Kremlin critic and anti-corruption blogger Aleksey Navalny has poked fun at UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov after the latter criticized a Dagestani play which featured a scantily clad female actress in a sex scene.
This week, Nurmagomedov lambasted the play ‘Okhota Na Muzhchin’ (Hunting for Men) which was staged in his Dagestani homeland, branding the performance “filth.” In response, Navalny lampooned the fighter's attitude to nakedness, and shared a picture of him and teammates sharing a bathtub during a broadcast on his YouTube channel 'Navalny LIVE'.
“I have googled pictures of Dagestani beaches. And I found many photos of bikini-wearing women. What happens to them afterwards? Are they beaten with sticks?” Navalny asked.
“Khabib simply hates naked people. Everytime he sees nude women or men, he considers it to be pornography. And to compensate for not showing enough naked people, I will now show really nude men in a bathroom,” he said, showing a picture of Khabib surrounded by six men in a bath.
A devout Muslim, Nurmagomedov shared an image of the main female character wearing black lingerie during the scene, calling the revealing outfit inappropriate for Dagestani society.
The fighter was infuriated by the intimate part of the play where the woman attempts to seduce her partner. He urged the government in Dagestan to ban the “indecent” performance.
Also on rt.com ‘Filth’: Khabib condemns play featuring lingerie-clad actress after staging in Dagestan“Dagestan is a land of honor and dignity, decent men and virtuous women, and not what they have introduced to us lately,” he wrote on his Instagram page.
Khabib’s reaction attracted a lot of public attention, with many MMA fighters from Russia’s Muslim republics supporting him, agreeing that such performances promote "infidelity" and "filth".
Another who spoke out against Khabib's views was Russian actor Stas Sadalsky, who ridiculed his high moral standards by highlighting the fighter himself fights half-naked.
“Khabib, thank you for your courage. Could you please call on the UFC judges to oblige fighters to wear shirts instead of running around half-naked in a cage!” Sadalsky posted on his Instagram page with a picture of Khabib battling with an opponent during a bout.
“It’s very bad that you yourself run out semi-naked on the ring,” he went on to say. “I think the Russian State Duma should address this issue. Anyway, thank you Khabib for your courage and attention to dramatic spectacles,” the actor concluded.
Also on rt.com Producer ‘receives threats’ after Khabib criticizes staging of ‘insulting’ play in Dagestan