Speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, Khabib Nurmagomedov denied accusations of pulling out of his upcoming title defense against Tony Ferguson at UFC249.
Nurmagomedov stated that he never said he was out, his only decision was that he would not fly anywhere without a confirmed location for the bout.
“Like right now, if they give me a location and I can come out from Russia and I can go to any country like the US, Abu Dhabi doesn’t matter, I’m going to fight, 100% I’m going to fight. Just give me a location”.
“Every day I send Dana White message. Hey, where’s my location? You know it’s like this is not my mistake. And you know too make crazy stuff, too many questions I don’t have the answer”.
Khabib then went on to express his understanding of fans disappointment due to all the issues regarding the event, detailing just how much he also wants this fight to happen.
“Like I understand people are upset because this fight, this is like a dream fight for fans, this is my dream fight. I lose money, I lose so much money, I lose so many things. You know, nobody loses like I do, nobody. Like I lose so many things you know? I want to fight that’s why I chose this fight, because this is a hard fight, because this is a legacy fight, because this is like #1 fight for fans, biggest fight in UFC right now.”
“Of course I can choose easy fight with chicken, but I chose hard fight. Everything that happened, I can’t control this”
The “Chicken” Khabib is referring to is Connor McGregor after the former champion took to twitter slamming Nurmagomedov for “chickening out” of his upcoming bout.
At this stage there has been no official announcement regarding Khabibs involvement in the event, however, rumours state that the UFC is considering a replacement to face Tony Ferguson.
Do you think Khabib will face Tony on the 18th?