Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who headlines the UFC 254 pay-per-view (PPV) event later this month, is expected to get “something special” with a win over interim titleholder Justin Gaethje.
He may get something special in defeat, as well.
That’s because promotion president Dana White is willing to tempt fate and book Nurmagomedov against Tony Ferguson for a sixth time, which means “El Cucuy” would likely need to register another win after falling to Gaethje earlier this year.
Unless “The Highlight” upsets “The Eagle” on Fight Island.
“If Khabib does beat Gaethe, you get Tony Ferguson another fight, which we’re working on right now,” White told Sports Illustrated (via MMA Fighting). “And hopefully that fight with Khabib happens because I know people want to see it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fight fall apart as many times as those two. It almost scares me to make the fight again. What’s going to happen? An asteroid comes to earth? That’s the level of bad this thing is.”
Blame COVID-19 for the dissolution of their most recent fight.
Ferguson, ranked No. 3 at 155 pounds, was in talks to collide with fellow lightweight contender and No. 2-ranked Dustin Poirier later this year; however, the promotion could not come to terms with “The Diamond” and the bout was put on hold.
Poirier has since entered negotiations to battle Conor McGregor.
There’s still a lot that can happen over the next few weeks before we can start talking about Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov, but at least we know it remains a possibility. That said, you might want to start working on that underground bunker just in case…