Photo by Woohae Cho/Zuffa LLC
While the title fight is far from official, Khabib Nurmagomedov is expected to defend his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight strap against current No. 1 contender, Tony Ferguson, sometime in early 2020.
The fight has been booked and cancelled quite a bit of times already, so you can’t blame fans for not holding their breath in anticipation of what is sure-to-be a entertaining bout.
If it does happen, Brian Ortega likes “El Cucuy’s” chances against Khabib, who has yet to taste defeat in his entire mixed martial arts (MMA) career to the tune of racking up a 28-0, 12-0 UFC, mark.
“They’re high, man,” Ortega told John Hyon Ko in a recent interview courtesy of (h/t Abhinav Kini of The Body Lock MMA. “It’s going to happen. Tony’s an amazing athlete, he’s a great jiu-jitsu guard player as well.”
Indeed, Tony has proven to have a wide array of skills in his combat arsenal, winning 12 fights in a row, nine of them via submission, knockout or technical knockout. That said, if Tony can’t hand “The Eagle” his first loss, Ortega says he will be the man to do it.
“But when I see things, there’s just certain positions that I feel like I’m better at than certain people. And vice-versa they’re better than me in other positions. But the positions that Khabib is amazing at, I’m equally as amazing at from the bottom of the coin,” he said.
“I feel like if anyone is going to beat him, it’s going to be Ferguson. And if not, we’re going to have to wait until I come up,” proclaimed Ortega, who was lobbying to step in against Khabib at UFC 223.
Currently fighting in the Featherweight division, Ortega will obviously have no issues fighting at 155 pounds should he ever decide to do so. Getting to Khabib, though, will prove to be a tough task, as he would have to rack up an impressive winning streak in order to do so.
Plus, Nurmagomedov has already stated his time is limited in the fight game, and will only fight for a few more years. That means if Ortega wants a crack at dethroning him, he needs to make the move up sooner, rather than later.
For now, “T-City” has his focus on his upcoming fight against Chan Sung Jung, which is set to headline UFC Fight Night 165 on Dec. 21, in Busan, South Korea.