UFC President Dana White has confirmed that an interim title fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee has been booked for UFC 216. In terms of how this bout got booked, Lee has an idea and revealed it during a recent appearance on MMAJunkie Radio.
According to Lee, the UFC called him and offered this fight, which he accepted. In regards to how he got the opportunity over Khabib Nurmagomedov, Lee went off on Nurmagomedov for not fighting him.
“We can cut the (expletive) – (Nurmagomedov’s) just being a (expletive) about it,” Lee (16-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) today told MMAjunkie Radio. “He just doesn’t want to fight. Bottom line, he doesn’t want to fight. He wants to hold onto that imaginary zero that he’s got.”
Ferguson gets his second chance to win an interim UFC title. If you recall, he was supposed to fight Nurmagomedov for the belt at UFC 209 before Nurmagomedov was hospitalized after a bad weight-cut.
Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, would not comment on the reason as to why his client would not take the fight. According to Abdelaziz, Nurmagomedov will fight the winner of Lee vs. Ferguson and then unify the title against champ Conor McGregor.
“I think he should focus on Tony,”Abdelaziz said. “He shouldn’t even care about Khabib.”
On the other side, Lee thinks that making the weight is still a problem for the undefeated lightweight fighter. It’s a good point considering that weight cut issues did cancel his bout against Ferguson at UFC 209.
“I’m bigger than Khabib,” Lee said. “You stand me next to him – I’m 186 pounds right now, and I’m going to make the weight. I usually start at 188, 189.”
“Everybody knows – if you ask any fighter in this division, Tony is the toughest fight in this division,” Lee said. “Hands down. To me, he’s the real champ. You can say McGregor’s the champ, because he’s that on paper. But the man only has one fight. Tony’s got 11, 12? He’s already got double-digit fights in the (UFC’s) lightweight division. I’m (going to expletive) Tony Ferguson up,” Lee said. “There’s a reason why none of these dudes put my name in their mouth.”
UFC 216 is set to take place on October 7th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The preliminary card will air on the promotion’s streaming service, UFC Fight Pass, as well as FOX Sports 1. The main card will be broadcasted on PPV. The co-main event for the upcoming show has yet to be officially announced.
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