Tony
Ferguson was widely believed to the biggest potential threat to
Khabib
Nurmagomedov’s lightweight title reign at one point in
time.
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Ferguson, who won 12 consecutive UFC bouts from 2013 to 2019, was
booked to fight Nurmagomedov five times — but each time the matchup
fell through due to various unfortunate circumstances. The
potential fight was shelved for good when Nurmagomedov retired from
the sport in 2020 shortly after the death of his father.
Meanwhile, Ferguson went on a six-fight skid that began with a
brutal beatdown against Justin
Gaethje at UFC 249. Scheduled to fight English prospect
Paddy
Pimblett at UFC 296 on Dec. 16, Ferguson recently admitted
during an interview on “The
MMA Hour” that a part of him was forever gone with
Nurmagomedov’s retirement.
“I know when Khabib left, a little part of me left with that,”
Ferguson said. “It kind of sucked a little bit because we’ve always
had that, I don’t want to say negative energy, but that hype that
was built around that. Then when that disappeared and the pandemic
hit and the f—-ing team left and then just a whole bunch there was
nothing else left for me kind of. Except what I told myself is I
wanted to compete. I wanted to compete enough so that way maybe
possibly, win or lose, Khabib would come back.”