Tony Ferguson believes that Khabib Nurmagomedov let his emotions get the best of him when he announced his retirement at UFC 254.
Ferguson and Nurmagomedov has a longstanding rivalry having being booked to fight on five separate occasions in the past. Unfortunately for fight fans, none of those five proposed bouts ever came to fruition for various reasons.
Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov were most recently booked to square off at UFC 249. However, ‘The Eagle’ was unable to travel due to Covid-19 and was thus replaced by surging contender Justin Gaethje.
‘The Highlight’ wound up snapping Ferguson’s twelve fight win streak that evening in Jacksonville, emerging victorious by way of fifth round TKO. That victory earned Gaethje a title unification bout with Khabib Nurmagomedov which took place at UFC 254.
Unfortunately for Gaethje fans, ‘The Highlight’ was unable to solve the riddle that is Khabib Nurmagomedov on Fight Island. Instead, ‘The Eagle’ picked up his 29th consecutive win by way of second round submission.
Immediately following his emphatic victory Khabib Nurmagomedov proceeded to shock the mixed martial arts world by announcing his retirement from the sport.
Despite Khabib’s convincing retirement speech, Tony Ferguson believes ‘The Eagle’ was simply overcome with emotion and will in fact return to the Octagon.
“He was emotional,” said Ferguson of Khabib in a recent interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto (via MMAMania). “I already called it out. I said the same thing that Dana [White] said. I said it before anybody. He got emotional. He’ll be back. He’s going to go back and talk to his mom and says what’s up. The kid’s too young to be able to retire right now. Same thing with Conor [McGregor]. You can make all the money in the f—king world, but if you’re a competitor and you’re an athlete its hard to walk away on that kind of thing.”
Tony Ferguson continued:
“As far as him retiring, and as far as we ever meeting and everything like that, I’m not going to say it’s a Christian, Muslim war. I’m not going to say anything like that. But what I will say is he’ll have his hands full if it does come to me.”
Tony Ferguson returns to the cage at tonight’s UFC 256 event for a crucial confrontation with fellow lightweight contender Charles Oliveira. Do you agree with ‘El Cucuy’ that we haven’t seen the last of Khabib Nurmagomedov? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!
This article first appeared on BJPENN.com December 12, 2020