Tony Ferguson on UFC 223 Main Event: “Al Iaquinta exposed Khabib Nurmagomedov”
It seems as if UFC 223 has long passed, being that Tony Ferguson has not fought since October of 2017, and Conor Mcgregor is returning to court in just a couple of weeks.
Speaking of Ferguson, it apparently looks as if the former UFC Lightweight Champion who was slated to headline that event, is up and moving again, as he was spotted at the UFC Hall of Fame ceremony speaking to the media about the UFC 223 Main Event that saw Khabib Nurmagomedov capture the UFC Lightweight Title against Al Iaquinta.
UFC 223 was originally suppose to be Ferguson’s night as he himself was preparing to face Nurmagomedov in what would’ve been one of the biggest UFC Lightweight Championship fights in recent history.
Unfortunately for “El Cucuy” he was met with ill fate when he sufffered an LCL tear in his left knee in what was a freak accident during UFC media obligations. The injury forced Ferguson to withdraw from the card, thus again cancelling another highly anticipated bout between he and Nurmagomedov.
After much scrambling to find an opponent to replace Ferguson for Nurmagomedov, it was non other than “Raging” Al Iaquinta who eventually got the call to step in and face the undefeated Russian contender. Max Holloway as a replacement was a whole other story and nightmare.
Though Iaquinta lost the fight and was dominated for all five rounds, Ferguson feels the fight proved the point he’s longed to make about Khabib, he’s not really all that good.
“I was not impressed by Khabib’s performance,” Ferguson told Helen Yee at the UFC Hall of Fame ceremony yesterday. “Obviously his conditioning was in check a little bit. Al Iaquinta, he did what he had to do and he was an Ultimate Fighter, he went all five rounds. It was exactly what I expected was gonna happen. [Khabib] got exposed, it’s what I knew.”
Now with Khabib as the new Lightweight Champion, he is believed to be destined to collide with Conor McGregor in a potential super fight later on this year, but of course that remains to be seen as McGregor’s recent legal troubles have temporarily stalled his MMA career recently, McGregor has also been known to be difficult to do business with it terms of negotiating fights, and getting the proper price to do the fight.
Ferguson fully aware of this, thinks he’ll be able ease back into the championship mix and finally have a showdown with Nurmagomedov.
“Don’t know, haven’t heard shit,” Ferguson said about a fight with Nurmagomedov potentially being re-booked. “What I know is I’ve been keeping my nose clean, making sure that my leg is healing right. As far as how the fights are gonna go, the fans want to see myself and Khabib. That’s what they really want to see. Conor’s got his shit going on – slap on the wrist, whatever, that’s not my business – so if the shit happens and they want to go with Khabib, let’s do this. Let’s have some fun with it.”
Nurmagomedov is fresh off observation of the holy month of Ramadan, says he’ll aiming towards a return to the octagon in September or October for the 1st defense of his championship.
Ferguson believes that timeline bodes quite well into his plans that despite him having his surgery to have is LCL repair only 3 months ago, Ferguson’s hopeful he’ll be fully healthy and ready to return to the octagon in September.
“I’m about 90 percent right now,” Ferguson said. “Obviously, I want to get back in there. September looks good for me.”
Should things not turn out in Ferguson’s favor, and the UFC does booking the Nurmagomedov-McGregor, who would “El Cucuy” think will win? if you ask him, it really doesn’t matter.
“I hope they both get knocked out.”
