While #1 ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov is certainly the owner of arguably the most impressive record, and win streak, in the UFC today, he is prepared to put his 24-0 record on the line and take yet another fight before challenging for the lightweight title if need be.
On the heels of his dominant UFC 205 submission win over top ranked lightweight Michael Johnson, which saw Nurmagomedov utilize his dominant wrestling to secure numerous takedowns on Johnson, landing brutal barrages of ground & pound before ultimately picking up a 3rd round submission win, Khabib’s father, who is also his coach, spoke to MMANews.Info to discuss his son’s next potential fight. BloodyElbow has the translation, and quotes:
“We will not wait longer than 3 months,” Abdulmanap told MMANews.info (h/t Magomed Edilsultanov for accurate translation). “We’ll wait for 3 months and at the 4th, we need an opponent. Let them give us any opponent. Even at 77kgs (welterweight).”
When asked about the possibility of his son fighting Donald Cerrone, who Khabib was slated to fight once before in the past, Abdulmanap stated:
At this moment, it is better to fight with Ferguson — just to nail this thing down.”
This is quite the change of tune from Nurmagomedov’s camp, given that Khabib stated following his win over Johnson that if he didn’t receive a title fight with newly crowned lightweight champ Conor McGregor, he would be looking to fight in another promotion instead of the UFC.
In addition, footage from the ‘UFC 205: The Thrill and the Agony’ preview shows Nurmagomedov talking to UFC President Dana White mid-fight, saying that White knows he deserves a title shot.
While a fight with Donald Cerrone certainly would be a highly anticipated matchup for Nurmagomedov, Cerrone of course is currently slated to fight top ranked welterweight Matt Brown at UFC 206 on December 10th in Toronto Canada.
Tony Ferguson on the other hand, who was named by Nurmagomedov’s father as a potential opponent, is coming off a unanimous decision win over former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos earlier this month at the ‘TUF Latin America: 3’ Finale which saw him briefly ranked as the lightweight #1 contender before Nurmagomedov defeated Johnson at UFC 205 to reclaim the #1 spot on the UFC’s official lightweight rankings.