Athletistic/MMA. Khabib Nurmagomedov has been a dominant force in the UFC lightweight division during his tenure with the promotion. He successfully defeated several top opponents, but the only big fight that never came to fruition was a fight with Tony Ferguson. The UFC’s repeated attempts to arrange a fight between the two fighters included a fight for Nurmagomedov’s first title shot at UFC 223. However, the long-awaited fight against “El Cucuy” did not materialize.

Oddly enough, just days before UFC 223, scheduled for April 7, 2018, on April 1 (April Fool’s Day), Ariel Helwani broke the news of Ferguson’s injury and subsequent withdrawal from the title fight.

The timing of the post caused fans to doubt Helwani’s comments, with many considering it an April Fool’s joke. He was forced to clarify in a follow-up post on X (formerly known as Twitter). The failure of the battle was confirmed.

A similar situation was repeated two years later, when Nurmagomedov had to defend his title for the third time against Ferguson. However, this time it was the COVID-19 pandemic that brought the world to a halt and made it impossible for events like UFC 249 to take place. Once again, the fight was canceled on April 1. Then this tournament took place in May, but Khabib could not participate in it.

In total, the fight between Khabib and Ferguson was interrupted 5 times. Given the reasons for the last two failures discussed above, let us consider the first three failures.

The UFC initially booked Nurmagomedov and Ferguson for the 2015 TUF 22 Finale, but Khabib withdrew due to a rib injury. Khabib was ranked No. 3 at the time, compared to Ferguson’s No. 8, but it took him three more years to challenge for the title.

Their next fight was scheduled for UFC on FOX 19, and Ferguson withdrew from the fight due to lung issues.

A third attempt to arrange a fight between these two fighters was made in 2017 at the UFC 209 tournament. However, due to an unsuccessful attempt to lose weight, Nurmagomedov fell ill and the fight was canceled.

As a result, the fight was canceled twice due to injuries to Khabib and Ferguson, and the coronavirus prevented it once. After that, Ferguson lost to Justin Gaethje and Tony’s downfall started from that fight. Gaethje fought with Khabib and Ferguson rode into the sunset, losing 7 fights in a row to Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Beneil Dariush, Michael Chandler, Nate Diaz, Bobby Green and Paddy Pimblett.

Vyacheslav Gorbachev/Athletistic



Athletistic