Last week, reigning UFC lightweight champion Khabib
Nurmagomedov said he
doesn’t ever expect to face Tony
Ferguson after Ferguson was beaten badly by Justin
Gaethje at UFC 249 this past May.
“One day you’re going to go down and his day come. It was May. Tony
Ferguson is finished now,” Nurmagomedov recently told ESPN. “He’s
gonna come back, and someone gonna beat him again, I believe.
Because when you take damage like this, you’ll never going to be
the same. Never. Even if you’re Tony Ferguson.”
Not so fast, says Ferguson. Although the fight has already fallen
through on five different occasions for various reasons, “El Cucuy”
is confident his day with Nurmagomedov will come. And although his
setback to Gaethje was jarring, Ferguson is not happy that many in
the MMA community seem to have forgotten that he authored a 12-bout
winning streak in the UFC prior to that defeat.
“I see fear in his voice if he thinks he has to talk bad about
people,” Ferguson told
ESPN. “He can’t put that s— in my head. I will fight Khabib
at one point or another. He will see me before he retires. We’ll
make that a point.
“I think everybody is writing me off after one loss, and f— them.
The casual fan base is trying to, but my hardcore fans are too
much. They know too much. My value is way too much.”
Ferguson revealed that he wants to return to action in December,
but he isn’t thrilled about the possibility of facing Michael
Chandler if the former Bellator champion is making more than he
is for the proposed bout. For that fight to happen, Ferguson wants
the promotion to renegotiate his contract.
“Michael Chandler hasn’t earned his way to the top,” Ferguson said. “But if that’s who Dana White wants me to fight, you know me: I put
my boots on, and I go to work. When it came to COVID, I made
weight, and I went to work. There was a point, 72 hours, it was
myself, Dana, [UFC matchmaker] Sean Shelby and my wife, just trying
to make that s— happen. If I hadn’t taken that fight, how many
people would not have gotten paid?
“Do I want to fight? Yes. I want to fight in December. I’m f—ing
training. Let’s go. But I don’t think somebody who doesn’t even
belong here should be paid more than me. That’s what I’m
saying.”