A much-anticipated (and oft-canceled) Lightweight title fight between Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and No. 1 contender, Tony Ferguson, is set to go down at the upcoming UFC 249 pay-per-view (PPV) event, scheduled to go down inside Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 18, 2020.
The two men have built up some heated tension over the years, eyeing each other down while preparing to fight four times prior. So to say there is no love lost between the two 155-pound monsters would be an understatement.
That’s why “El Cucuy” simply isn’t content with handing “The Eagle” his first loss in mixed martial arts (MMA), he wants to hurt him ... bad.
“I told everybody I’m going to make him piss blood. I said that a while ago,” Ferguson said during a recent interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. “This guy has got an issue and his name is Tony Ferguson and I’m coming after him. It’s hunting season, baby.”
Indeed, handing Khabib his first-ever loss would be a huge feather in Ferguson’s cap — no one has ever really come close to solving Dagestani puzzle. Ferguson, meanwhile, feels he already has a victory over his upcoming foe, and beating him inside the Octagon is just another notch on his ever-growing resume.
“He’s just another opponent. I already beat that dude. I showed up to UFC 209 and I saw it in his face, I saw quit,” Ferguson said in reference to their previous staredown during one of their scheduled bouts.
Furthermore, “El Cucuy” — who is riding a 12-fight win streak — says Khabib will be unable to handle the the pressure that comes with facing him.
“I called him out, called my shot and it worked. I’m in this dude’s head, he’s looking at me and he is going to be training so hard and be so nervous and he’s going to make a mistake. I am going to capitalize on that,” he added. “I’m going to catch him during the scrambles. Scrambled eggs, baby.”
While it’s easy to get lost in Khabib’s dominant run thus far — winning 28 straight fights including all 12 contests inside the Octagon — Ferguson is far from a slouch. The former interim 155-pounder has only tasted defeat once in the last decade, winning 18 of his last 19 bouts and is coming of back-to-back technical knockout wins over Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis
Now, the waiting game begins as we are still five months away, which makes fight fans nervous ... for obvious reasons.
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