Tony Ferguson is still as confident as ever.
Of all the cursed match ups throughout mixed martial arts (MMA) history, none top the pairing of Ferguson and his now-retired rival and former Lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov. The all-time great 155-pound tandem was scheduled to compete on five occasions with each falling through for one reason or another.
Unfortunately for Ferguson, the last expected collision with Nurmagomedov led him to an encounter with Justin Gaethje for interim gold at UFC 249 in May 2020. “El Cucuy” went on to lose the bout via a fifth round technical knockout, which snowballed into his current six-fight losing skid. Despite the stretch, Ferguson’s feelings about a Nurmagomedov fight haven’t waned.
“He’s still my b—ch,” Ferguson told ESPN. “I scared the f—k out of that Dagestani guy. Nothing against anybody else in the country. Just met a dude over here today, took a picture, but I scared the death out of him. Not saying that’s a war between our religions and everything like that, but I got that guy’s f—king number and he knows that he loses, he can’t go back home.”
Nurmagomedov fought just once more after that event, where he defended his undisputed title against Gaethje and beat him by a second round triangle choke at UFC 254 in October 2020. “The Eagle” then retired and rode off into the sunset with a perfect 29-0 record.
Ferguson has no intentions of retiring yet and plans to get back in the win column by taking out the hot British prospect, Paddy Pimblett, at UFC 296 this weekend (Sat., Dec. 16, 2023).
“I can still do more and I’m like 39 years old and everybody calls me washed up,” Ferguson said. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, damn straight. I’m cleaned up, b—ch.’ Washed up to me means I just shed everything. I got a sport psych, which is cool as f—k, and he said the same thing.”
Remember that MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 296 fight card right here, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches online, which are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET (simulcast on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. ET), before the pay-per-view (PPV) main card start time at 10 p.m. ET (also on ESPN+).
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