When news broke indicating that Tony Ferguson had suffered an injury and would be forced out of his highly anticipated UFC 223 main event with Khabib Nurmagomedov, it didn’t cross “The Eagle’s” mind that he could potentially be facing off with 145-pound champion Max Holloway instead:
“I never think Max Holloway,” Nurmagomedov said on today’s (April 2, 2018) edition of The MMA Hour. “I think Poirier, Alvarez … maybe Chiesa, Pettis because these guys fight same night.”
That is indeed the case, however, as UFC President Dana White announced yesterday (April 1, 2018) that Holloway would be stepping up on less than one weeks’ notice to fight Nurmagomedov for the undisputed lightweight title this Saturday (April 7, 2018) night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
As far as Ferguson goes, Nurmagomedov still wants that fight despite the fact that the two have been scheduled to compete against each other four times to date with the fight never coming to fruition. The undefeated Russian also thought Conor McGregor could fill in for “El Cucuy”, but that didn’t seem to be an option either:
“I still want this fight, even they change my opponent, I still want this fight. He has a 10-fight win streak. We have big history, maybe not perfect history, but big history. People still want this fight, Now, I have to focus on Max Holloway.
“I told first, ‘Hey, where is this Burger King? Take the Burger King here. I need this guy becasue he put a tweet a couple of weeks ago that he stay ready. So where is this guy? Six days is good to make weight. He can make weight. But, Dana told that he has to look nice, because he has good sponsorship’s and we cannot change his face. I say I need to fight for title and I don’t care who … bring anybody. Please stop giving me regular fight because I deserve to fight for title. I have best win streak in UFC. I’m 29 years old, young hungry my time is coming. I need to fight for title.”
In regards, to Holloway, Nurmagomedov doesn’t feel as if he’s receiving a much easier opponent than Ferguson, but in the end, “The Eagle” feels as if he will make a statement against the Hawaiian:
“He fought Aldo twice, Pettis, Lamas, Jeremy Stephens. All these guys, no one wrestling him. I watch his 12-fight win streak, no one wrestle him like me,” Nurmagomedov said. “Now, he is in a different territory, different weight classes, different animals, everything is different. He has an opponent who is young like him. He fought before Pettis, Aldo, these guys are already finished. Now he has a young, hungry opponent bigger than him. More strong than him, have more good wrestling pressure, undefeated, I think it’s going to be a long night for him.
“I don’t want to underestimate this guy because this guy has 12-fight win streak in UFC, one of the greatest to ever compete in UFC. More than him win streak, Georges St-Pierre and maybe Anderson Silva. He’s tough, not a small guy. I don’t want to think it’s a much easier fight than Tony Ferguson. I think if they fought, in a stand up fight, Max Holloway can beat him (Ferguson),” he added.
Does Holloway stand a chance against Nurmagomedov?
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