Objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear, but it\u2019s truly the offbeat, borderline eccentric madman riding shotgun that should be most concerning to UFC lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov. Top contender Tony Ferguson won\u2019t make it rain green like Conor McGregor, but he could make it spew red by giving the champ a fight the likes of which the lightweight division has never seen.<\/p>\n
Money, hype, showmanship\u2014any quantifiable description of a mere spectacle falls at the wayside when pitting the baddest 155-pounders on the planet against one another.<\/p>\n
Ferguson, a former interim lightweight champion, never lost his crown and currently rides a 12-fight win streak over a murderer\u2019s row of opposition. He has been recast as the division\u2019s enigma after spending the better part of the last decade fighting in the shadows. Few fighters have walked in that same invisible world\u2014a place that makes The Upside Down seem like a leisurely stroll on a hot Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Nurmagomedov knows that sort of isolation.<\/p>\n
Even as an undefeated destroyer, it still took him over a decade before he finally received an opportunity to pump the brakes on The Conor McGregor Show. Game recognizes game, and real recognizes real. He has seen enough of the lightweight landscape to know there is something inherently different about Ferguson\u2014something that runs deeper than the quirky fighting style and \u201890s breakdancing routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think, just my opinion, like the last couple of years, I compete with guys like [Edson] Barboza, [Rafael] dos Anjos, Conor, [Dustin] Poirier, [Al] Iaquinta \u2013 all of these guys not tough like Tony Ferguson, and that\u2019s why I feel like now I have real motivation,\u201d Nurmagomedov told TMZ Sports<\/a> back in February. \u201cWhen I watch all these opponents I think, \u2018OK, I can beat these guys.\u2019 Of course I work hard, but right now, it\u2019s like very, very tough opponent. That\u2019s why, and we focus like always, but right now we have more focus, more hard work. Tony is not like these guys, he\u2019s a little bit more tough than all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n