If there was one fight the fans wanted to see, but never happened, it would be between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Nurmagomedov retired from professional MMA competition at UFC 254, but Ferguson believes Nurmagomedov will be back at some point.
“I completely called it out,” Ferguson told Submission Radio (via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “I called it out on my post. You guys can see that. I called he was going to retire. I mean, (manager) Ali Abdelaziz did his job. He kept his client safe – kept him away from very dangerous opponents. I mean, that’s what an agent and a manger is supposed to do – although, he is a piece of (expletive). But I have to say, he did the smart thing. I mean, he avoided me at all (expletive) costs. I mean, the Russians, they avoided me at all (expletive) costs. That’s (expletive) awesome. So, you know what? I did my job. They ran. (Expletive) Dagestani ran with his tail between his legs. But you know what? He’s off in the sunset. I have to give him props. Go handle your family business, and I’ll see you when you get here. Back, because you’re going to miss it like Conor (McGregor). So you know what? I’m calling it out again: He’s going to be back, so I’ll be (expletive) ready.”
Ferguson and Nurmagomedov were booked against each other over five times during their respective UFC tenures, but the bout always fell through for one reason or another. The former interim lightweight champion also doesn’t like that Nurmagomedov is ranked no. 1 in the UFC’s pound for pound fighter rankings.
“Oh, (expletive) him, dude,” Ferguson said. “Half of his fights were two-round fights over in Europe. And the one thing is, he never fought me. How could you be a pound-for-pound (expletive)? Yeah, I mean, there you go: Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, all these guys are much better than Khabib. They’ve had the titles. Matt Hughes. Look at all these other guys. What, did you forget? It’s always going to be the greatest of all time for five minutes. What the (expletive)? It’s going to be consistently changing.”
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