{"id":218163,"date":"2017-01-17T14:29:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T22:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=218163"},"modified":"2017-01-17T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T22:30:00","slug":"tony-ferguson-opens-up-on-accepting-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/tony-ferguson\/tony-ferguson-opens-up-on-accepting-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Ferguson opens up on accepting Khabib Nurmagomedov fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will meet in the Octagon at UFC 209<\/a> to fight for the interim UFC lightweight championship, it took quite a bit of time for the fight to be made official.<\/p>\n

After Conor McGregor captured the lightweight championship by knocking out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in New York<\/a> in November, the UFC superstar revealed that he would be taking some time away from the Octagon in order to be with his girlfriend leading up to the birth of their firstborn child in May<\/a>. This led to talks of an interim lightweight title, with undefeated Dagestani fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov and streaking 10th Planet JiuJitsu lightweight Tony Ferguson being mentioned as the two combatants.<\/p>\n

\"top<\/p>\n

While it appeared as though the fight wouldn’t be booked, the UFC brass was ultimately able to finalize a deal after Ferguson initially stated that he planned to hold out<\/a> for more money from the promotion. In a recent interview with MMAJunkie<\/a>, he spoke about how the fight was finalized, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey met my standards,\u201d Ferguson told MMAjunkie Radio. \u201cKhabib\u2019s offer I threw right out the window immediately. That was some trashy kind of thing. But we\u2019re good to good. We\u2019re full swing ahead. \u2026 We worked out financial terms. I\u2019ve earned my stripes in this division. I\u2019ve put in my time. I\u2019ve put in my work. I\u2019ve put in my effort, especially when no fans were watching when I didn\u2019t have cameras on me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t need anybody to believe in me besides myself, because every single day I go in there and I beat myself up that was so I can go out there and I can kick some ass. I know what I\u2019m worth and I know my numbers, and that dude\u2019s padded record is nowhere near my contention, my type of fights that I\u2019ve had and presented to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dude has never wrestled with a California grizzly,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cI\u2019m going to come at this dude hard. I don\u2019t know what kind of bears they have in Dagestan. I\u2019ve said it before: I don\u2019t care how many steaks your parents put around your neck to get the animals to play with you. I\u2019ve been roughing it since I was little. This is a hype train I\u2019m going to love to derail. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a whole completely different animal, and he\u2019s never seen anyone as ferocious as me inside that octagon. I\u2019m going to put fear in this kid. I can\u2019t wait to slam this dude. I can\u2019t wait to mop the map with this guy.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Tony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will meet in the Octagon at UFC 209 to fight for the interim UFC lightweight championship, it took quite a bit of time for the fight to be made official. After Conor McGregor captured the lightweight championship by knocking out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in New York in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":161907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10114,10113],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nTony Ferguson opens up on accepting Khabib Nurmagomedov fight | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UFC lightweight Tony Ferguson opens up on negotiations with the UFC for a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov for UFC 209 in March.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/tony-ferguson\/tony-ferguson-opens-up-on-accepting-khabib-nurmagomedov-fight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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