Tag: UFC 223

There’s no doubt a Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor title fight would be the biggest MMA fight of 2018 – and perhaps of all-time.

Now that UFC lightweight champion Nurmagomedov has the belt many had predicted he would win since he was signed by the UFC and debuted in 2012, ‘The Eagle’ is now the marked man in the talented 155-pound fray after McGregor spent a year-and-a-half as champion without seriously entertaining defending the belt.

Khabib has promised to do the opposite of that, but with his holy month of Ramadan coming up, he’s still aiming for a November or December return. When he does step back into the octagon, there’s no bigger or better fight for him than to face “The Notorious” provided the infamous Irish former champ is willing to agree to it, and that fact was only amplified into the stratosphere after McGregor’s shocking Brooklyn bus attack for which he’ll next appear in court on June 14.

So with Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor the hottest prospective match-up in the UFC right now, both sides have begun to weigh-in on the dream bout. That includes McGregor’s longtime striking coach Owen Roddy, who recently told The BBC MMA Show (via Bloody Elbow) that they weren’t impressed with Nurmagomedov’s recent track record of mostly decision wins:

“At the end of the day, Khabib hasn’t finished many fights lately. Now he always says he does that on purpose, but I don’t think so. If you’re going to go in and finish somebody, you go in and finish somebody. He says, ‘I like punish people for five rounds’, I always say, ‘If you’re going to give Conor McGregor five attempts to land a shot on you..’.

“So even if he went in and didn’t land the first round, or the second, or the third, or the fourth, he still has five attempts to land one shot. I’ve seen Conor McGregor go in and land within the first thirty seconds of the first round.”

While it’s true Khabib has finished two of his last four bouts, he has also won his last two fights by decision and five of his last seven. In Roddy’s mind, that’s made him a less-than-deserving (or dangerous) champion, but the same thing was often said about dominant former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre during his decision-filled, late-career run.

From that point of view, it may appear he isn’t the most prolific finisher at 155 pounds, and he’s never been known for his knockout power or striking overall, really. What he is known best for is grinding his opponents into the mat using his peerless, dominant wrestling prowess, something that’s obviously helped him amass an unheard-of 25-0 record in arguably the toughest division in all of MMA.

He may not make it five full rounds with McGregor if he chooses to strike with him – that much is true – but can McGregor last five full rounds defending takedowns and getting back up from the inevitable attempts that are successful after gassing in fights where his grappling was put to the test?

As Dana White says, we’ll see what happens.

The post Quote: Khabib Hasn’t Finished Many Fights Lately appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

UFC lightweights Tony Ferguson and Al Iaquinta have jumped headfirst into a raging online battle in the weeks after UFC 223.

The Long Island-based Iaquinta replaced Ferguson to battle Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of the chaotic April 7 card, fighting valiantly but ultimately being dominated by a pair of 50-43 scorecards in a lopsided unanimous decision.

The MMA world has largely given credit to Iaquinta, who was originally scheduled to meet Paul Felder at the event, for stepping up on 24 hours notice to face arguably the most dominant lightweight in the world. But former interim champion Ferguson, who’s recovering from the knee surgery that forced him out of his fourth scheduled fight with Khabib, isn’t among those supporters.

Instead, he’s taken to social media to call out Khabib for beating a “real estate agent, non-full-time fighter ranked number 11” for the title, which predictably prompted the outspoken, opinionated Iaquinta to respond on Twitter. Now, however, “Ragin’” Al has taken things to a new forum, going off on Ferguson in a spot with Submission Radio via Bloody Elbow. Iaquinta believes the way Ferguson was forced out of the biggest fight of his career was ridiculous, and thus his ‘weird’ rival shouldn’t be talking any trash from the sidelines:

“You’re a f—king idiot. If that happened to me, if I had to pull out of a title fight because I tripped over a wire, you’re not hearing me talk shit on twitter at all. I’m gonna hide somewhere, I’m not gonna act tough. He’s acting tough,” he continued. “Right now, a middle school kid could kick the shit out of him right now because he can’t do anything. You can’t talk shit when you’re in the state that you’re in.

“That guy is so weird. He’s so weird, he just doesn’t — who cares about that guy? He’s really just good at fighting and that’s it. If it wasn’t for fighting he’d be like a worthless person.”

There’s no doubt that Ferguson had become a polarizing personality during his impressive 10-fight win streak, often rubbing people the wrong way or even outright confusing them with his strangely-capitalized online posts and cryptic statements that were often tough to decipher.

But even though he won the interim title by stopping Kevin Lee last October, it hasn’t translated to mainstream success in any shape or form, and Iaquinta put that on his unique personality, twisting the knife by saying the only reason people even watch him is to see him get beat up and then somehow come back:

“There’s no point to Tony Ferguson besides, honestly, really like, people beating his ass. He gets dropped every fight and he’s out of his mind. People like watching get his ass kicked and come back and win. That’s the only thing that Tony Ferguson is good at in the world. No one likes his personality, he’s a weird dude.

“I don’t even know, what’s the point in that guy? There’s no point. Just go away. You tripped on a wire and I got the title shot, now you’re gonna come at me? I’ve fought with worse injuries than that, guaranteed, in my career. You get to fight week, you’re fighting. You don’t pull out of a fight during fight week. Don’t come after me cause I took advantage of a situation that he couldn’t capitalise on.

“How many fights in a row has he won? 10 fights? And he still hasn’t fought for a title? Like, there’s a reason for that. No one likes you. Go away.”

As far as their online trash talk battle is concerned, Iaquinta is sick of Ferguson’s supposedly two-faced congratulations followed by trash talk, and he’s also sick of him capitalizing every word in his posts:

“I really have no idea what the f—k the guy’s talking about at all. He says he was rooting for me and then he goes and says that. I don’t know. The guy’s weird. He’s making fun of my grammar and then he capitalizes letters and every letter. The first letter of every word is capitalized and he’s making fun – I put ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re.’ Same shit, it’s f—king twitter, shut up, who cares. That guy is just annoying.”

It may seem Ferguson is trying to keep himself relevant while injured by talking continued trash online, and in today’s social media-driven, fast-paced MMA world, that isn’t the worst idea given he’s facing what could be a lengthy recovery.

A big part of that is to apparently criticize and clap back at all of the parties involved at UFC 223, but Iaquinta put that in a brutally honest perspective by continuing to note that Ferguson was forced out of a big fight and has no room to talk until he can return to the cage:

“He really needs to go away until he can fight, and then once you fight, just fight, dude. Everyone likes you fighting. Not a single person likes that guy. Everyone on Twitter, everyone that I talk to is like, just shut up, man. You know, everyone was looking forward to that fight. He disappointed so many people, and I come in, you know, save the day. Don’t freaking say shit about me, bro.

He’s been dropped in every fight. I drop someone, I kill them, I put them out. It’s a different style match-up than me and Khabib, and I didn’t train right for that fight. And especially right now, I could beat the shit out of Tony Ferguson with my pinky finger. The guy can’t even walk. You can’t talk shit right now.”

The post Al Iaquinta Sounds Off On ‘Weird’ Tony Ferguson Amidst Twitter Beef appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Top UFC lightweight contender Kevin Lee got back into the win column with his fifth-round TKO win over Edson Barboza in New Jersey last weekend, and now there are several potentially exciting match-ups that await “The Motown Phenom.”

The historic weight class is arguably the most talented and buzzing in the UFC right now, but it also has a confusing, jumbled mess at the top involving champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, recently stripped former champion Conor McGregor, and recently stripped former interim champion Tony Ferguson. If it sounds confusing that’s because it is, and the scenario is unlikely to gain any real clarity soon with all three inactive for one reason or another.

So while Lee called out Khabib – the undefeated machine everyone wants to fight – after his dominant stoppage over Barboza, it’s probably more realistic that the No. 5-ranked contender faces someone like Eddie Alvarez or Dustin Poirier. Always informed and cognizant of the present status of his division, the 25-year-old Lee admitted as much during an appearance on this week’s The MMA Hour. In his view, Alvarez is out there for the picking, so he called out Alvarez by jabbing at his recently documented weight:

“We’ll see. I mean, there’s a lot of fights out there, a lot of options. We’re gonna see. I mean there’s Eddie out there, ripe for the pickins’, easy for the beatins’. So we gonna see if Eddie can lose some weight, maybe we can get in there.”

Lee is referring to the fact that Alvarez couldn’t fill in for the injured Ferguson on six days notice at April 7’s UFC after he admitted he weighed upwards of 155 pounds, and “The Motown Phenom” stated he wasn’t just making fun of Alvarez because ‘The Underground King’ said it himself.

Lee can back it up, however, as he saw Alvarez and verified his weight at UFC Atlantic City:

“He just even says that he’s just fat. The man’s like two inches shorter than me, and he talking about he walk around 190, I seen him there at the fight – he’s round – if you haven’t seen a round little Philly fella before, I did on Saturday night.”

It’s a bit ironic to hear “The Motown Phenom” critique another fighter’s weight, as he caused a frenetic scene prior to his interim title fight against Ferguson at UFC 216 before making weight at the last minute, and then actually missed weight for his fight with Barboza, causing the bout to be contested at a catchweight and forfeiting 20 percent of his purse.

Not surprisingly, that’s lead to cries for him to move up a weight class, so the trolls were out with their pitchforks calling for that just like they were during the fight when Lee was rocked by a big Barboza wheel kick in an otherwise dominant victory. “The Motown Phenom” said he’s used to the callouts and getting kicked is just part of the sport:

“I mean, I get shit for everything. On Saturday, too. It is what it is at this point. I’m just rolling with the punches. Sometimes you gonna get kicked in the head.”

The post Kevin Lee Calls Out ‘Round Philly Fella’ Eddie Alvarez On One Condition appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.