The two fighters traded numerous barbs in their UFC 223 conference call, including Khabib Nurmagomedov’s prediction that he’ll finish Tony Ferguson with Ferguson’s go-to move.
With almost an hour of time to field questions at the same time, the UFC 223 conference call was full of soundbites between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. The lightweight top contender and interim champion respectively got into it over everything from Reebok sponsorship to dessert choices.
In the midst of it all, however, Khabib gave fans a prediction of how he thinks the fight will go, and it sounds like he’s aiming for a classic club-n-sub (transcript via MMA Fighting).
“I’m going to give him a very strong left hook — left hook, he goes down and then I choke him,” chimed Nurmagomedov when he was asked how the fight would come to close.
When Ferguson responded that he had “something planned for your ass” if Khabib went for the rear naked choke, Khabib took the opportunity to poke fun at his opponent.
“I’m going to give him very nice D’arce choke,” said Nurmagomedov.
In his fourteen fight run, Ferguson has three wins by D’arce. It may not seem like that much, until you consider that there have only been twenty three total D’arce sub wins in UFC history. If Khabib can catch the man with his own move, it’d be one heck of a feather in his over-sized, woolly cap.
UFC 223 goes down on Saturday, April 7th, in Brooklyn, NY. The card is expected to be headlined by the lightweight title bout between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson. A strawweight title rematch between Rose Namajunas and Joanna Jedrzejczyk is planned for the co-main event.