Khabib Nurmagomedov News

Justin Golightly - December 23, 2017

The last UFC card of the year is fast approaching and there is yet another big lightweight fight that can decide who is in contention for the throne. Eddie Alvarez put on a slobberknocker of a fight against Justin Gaethje, rocketing him back up to the top, but Khabib Nurmagomedov is facing Edson Barboza to hold his place at the front. Meanwhile, Tony Ferguson is waiting to unify the titles against Conor McGregor. And who blames him? Nurmagomedov’s coach Javier Mendez sure doesn’t, but it’s why he’s not too confident that the Ferguson fight is next. “If that fight [with Tony Ferguson] does come together, it’s gonna be because Conor [McGregor] vacated the title. That’s the only way I see that happening. Otherwise, Tony’s gonna hang in there for that golden nugget, and I don’t blame him. He wants the fights for that big money, but you know what, there also comes a time too with the time of limitation too. You can’t hold on forever. You can’t hold the division on forever, you know? You’re eventually gonna have to be put in a situation where if you don’t fight Conor you’re gonna have to fight somebody. So, the only fight that makes sense for Tony if Conor doesn’t fight him, is Khabib. That’s it. There’s no other fight that makes sense, there’s no other fight that people will buy into.”

Justin Golightly - December 22, 2017

No matter what, there is a ghost that haunts Khabib Nurmagomedov. It’s not a fight with Conor McGregor, it’s not a loss in the UFC because the man has none. What follows the Russian Sambo machine wherever he goes is his infamous weight cut battle. A war he lost back at UFC 209, causing his highly anticipated fight with Tony Ferguson to be scrapped. Despite all of this, coach Javier Mendez claims it has all been blown way out of proportion. “You know, the last time, people were making too much of [Khabib Nurmagomedov’s] weight cut, talking about it was disastrous, he wasn’t gonna make weight, just because his opponent says he wasn’t gonna make weight and he made fun of it. He was on schedule to make weight, his body just failed on him. It’s like, how many times do you see a fighter get ready for a fight and all of a sudden kidney stones or something happens to him?”

Russell Ess - December 20, 2017

November 12, 2016, was the last time we saw Conor McGregor fight in the Octagon. McGregor became the UFC lightweight champion that night, capturing the belt from Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 and also became the first fighter in history to hold two UFC weight division’s titles simultaneously. Over a year has passed since and McGregor has only competed once and it was outside of the Octagon in a highly lucrative boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, which was the second highest pay-per-view event of all time.

Tom Taylor - December 20, 2017

On December 30, the UFC will return to it’s home in Las Vegas, Nevada with UFC 219. In this stacked card’s co-main event, undefeated lightweight star Khabib Nurmagomedov will take on Edson Barboza in hopes of reasserting himself as the division’s top contender, and earning a fight with interim champion Tony Ferguson. While fans are very excited to see Nurmagomedov return to the cage, there is also widespread worry that he’ll fail to make weight. He was previously forced out of a planned bout with Ferguson as the result of a disastrous cut, after all.

Tom Taylor - December 19, 2017

It’s arguable that Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje’s lightweight showdown was the most anticipated feature of the UFC 218 bill, and when the cage door closed, the fight delivered on expectations. For two and a half rounds, the two patron saints of violence beat each other silly, throwing caution to the wind, until Alvarez put his foe down for good with a third-round knee to the face. While this fight stands out as one of the best of the year, however, not everybody enjoyed it. File undefeated UFC lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov into that group.

Drake Riggs - December 15, 2017

The undefeated 24-0, Dagestani destroyer, Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the Lightweight division’s very best fighters and has been for the past several years. Khabib’s last scheduled fight was a huge and highly anticipated Interim title fight against the man who ended up becoming champ despite not fighting Khabib, Tony Ferguson. The fight was supposed to take place at UFC 209 but unfortunately, Khabib had enough trouble cutting weight that it prevented him from even weighing in. On one of the UFC Embedded episodes for UFC 209, there was a shot caught on camera of Khabib and his team having the popular coffee-flavored Italian dessert, tiramisu. UFC Embedded is filmed during the week of the PPV event which means the week of weigh-ins… And although Khabib wasn’t seen actually eating the dessert on camera, the internet has accused this of being a big reason for Khabib’s missed weight and many, many jokes have been said since the event took place, both from fighters and MMA fans alike.

Chris Taylor - November 25, 2017

Interim UFC lightweight champion Tony Ferguson has finally responded to Khabib Nurmagomedov. The undefeated Russian standout, Nurmagomedov, made headlines earlier this week when he revealed that the UFC had offered him a fight with Tony Ferguson at UFC 219.

Justin Golightly - November 24, 2017

It’s been a couple of weeks since Conor McGregor stormed inside of a Bellator cage and caused absolute chaos. Everyone is still talking about it besides the UFC, who have no released any statement about the incident. Aside from the lead regulator from the Dublin Bellator card saying that allegedy the UFC pulled McGregor off of UFC 219, it looks like the Irish double champ will get off scot-free. Khabib Nurmagomedov surprisingly relates to McGregor’s actions, but ultimately thinks the organization needs to teach him some discipline. “My very good friend fought for a big organization in Europe at 57 kgs, 125 [pounds]. When he win, I do same sh-t. I come inside and I hold him because I’m very happy. I’m jumping on the cage, I come inside. A lot of people come inside, my friends, my teammates, because we’re very happy but when referee tells me, ‘Hey, you guys have to go out,’ I don’t try to fight with him because I know referee is not professional fighter, he’s referee. I have to respect rules. But I go crazy a little bit after I understand, ‘Hey, this is not good. I have to stop this,’ and I try to tell my friends, my teammates that we have to go out. Yes, it’s okay, but not all the time.”

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

This December 30, on the main card of UFC 219, undefeated Dagestani lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov is scheduled to step into the cage with venomous Brazilian striker Edson Barboza. From the sounds of it, however, Nurmagomedov has also been offered a UFC 219 bout with interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson. In a Wednesday afternoon Tweet, Nurmagomedov announced that he’d been offered this fight with Ferguson, and that he has accepted it.

Justin Golightly - November 22, 2017

To close out the year, Khabib Nurmagomedov is going to fight Edson Barboza at UFC 219. It will be his first UFC appearance since UFC 205 in November of last year. After many failed attempts to fight Tony Ferguson, Nurmagomedov is finally healthy and ready to return with a vengeance. After he takes care of his business with Barboza, the Russian Sambo machine doesn’t want to fight Conor McGregor. He’d rather finally answer the Ferguson question and put it all behind him. Not just for closure, but because he simply doesn’t like the guy. “My opinion, I have to fight for the title, you know. I deserve this. This is not about eight-fights in the UFC, this is about all my career since 2008. My plan is fight Edson Barboza. First of all, make weight. Second, beat this guy. And next year year want to fight Tony Ferguson. This is my plan. Me versus Conor is a good fight too, but first of all I have to finish. We have unfinished business with Tony Ferguson. I really, really want to smash this guys face. This is what I want. Sometimes you just don’t like somebody and it’s OK. Like, I think everywhere, everybody, there’s somebody who don’t like you. You know what I like about Tony Ferguson? I can smash him and the UFC are going to pay me money. UFC are going to pay me money.”

Tom Taylor - November 22, 2017

While Jose Aldo was surprisingly understanding of Conor McGregor‘s infamous rampage at Bellator 187, Khabib Nurmagomedov is not. Speaking on the Talk and Talker Podcast, Nurmagomedov went off on McGregor for his actions, suggesting he should have calmed down when he was told to leave the cage, and that he never should have gotten physical with the referee.

Justin Golightly - October 28, 2017

While we’ve been waiting along with Khabib Nurmagomedov on the sidelines for an announcement, we got our wish yesterday. A fight with Edson Barboza was made official to fight at UFC 219. This is a time for celebration, but fans and media can’t help but have painful flashbacks to the fights Nurmagomedov has had to pull out of. For most of 2016, we were hyped Tony Ferguson would fight Khabib, but it never materialized. Barboza isn’t worried about all that though, he’s just happy to finally fight one of the best in the world. “Khabib [Nurmagomedov] is a great fighter. He’s a true fighter. I knew if this contract comes on his head, he’s signing. This is an opportunity to have the two best lightweights in the world fighting. He definitely want the best and is one of the best and it makes me very excited for this fight. Definitely not [worried about Nurmagomedov not showing up]. I know Injuries happen all the time. I never fight 100% in my body in my life. Always every fighter have some injuries. Maybe I can get hurt in my camp. This happens to everybody and I’m not scared about this. […] He train so hard. I think for sure he train very hard. Sometimes it happens. I can’t do nothing. If you don’t train, you not get hurt. But me I train hard all the time, he trains hard all the time. I hope it doesn’t happen with me and him.”

Tom Taylor - October 18, 2017

Earlier this month, in the main event of UFC 216, Tony Ferguson defeated Kevin Lee with a third-round choke to capture the UFC interim lightweight title. While Ferguson ultimately came out on top, Lee put up a valiant fight, and very nearly finished Ferguson with ground-and-pound in the first frame. In the eyes of Khabib Nurmagomedov, however, Lee fought like a “chicken.” The undefeated Nurmagomedov trashed Lee’s UFC 216 performance on the latest edition of The MMA Hour.

Justin Golightly - October 17, 2017

Tony Ferguson has finally moved on from unsuccessfully fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov, to winning an interim UFC lightweight title. The Russian menace he was supposed to fight against had to sit back and watch it all unfold. Now, it seems like the UFC is trying to move on as well. With fans wondering if Khabib would sit out until the end of the year, they’re trying to book him into a fight with Edson Barboza. The lightweight contender has said he was not only offered, but accepted a fight with Khabib, now he’s just waiting on him to sign on the dotted line as well. “I want to fight as soon as possible, man. I told my manager I’m good to go, and now I’m waiting. I had a complicated moment with the shoulder injury, but now I’m 100 percent ready, just waiting for someone to accept to fight me. They offered me this fight [with Khabib Nurmagomedov] and I accepted it. I said I’ll be ready for December 30, and it’s on him now. We’ll see what he does. I saw an interview with him yesterday and he said he’ll fight me if Conor [McGregor] fights [Tony] Ferguson, and Dana [White] already said that fight will happen, so I believe my next fight will be against Khabib. I definitely want to fight him. He’s definitely one of the best and I respect him, I respect his team. He’s definitely one of the best 155 in the world. He’s the No. 2 and I’m the No. 3, and that’s the fight that makes sense for us.”

Tom Taylor - October 17, 2017

Earlier this month, in the main event of UFC 216, Tony Ferguson defeated Kevin Lee to win the UFC interim lightweight title. Yet in the opinion of Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is one of Ferguson’s fiercest rivals, Ferguson should now be considered the undisputed champion. It’s for this reason that Nurmagomedov wants to fight Ferguson next – ideally at UFC 219 on December 30 in Detroit. While this fight goes down, Nurmagomedov believes the UFC should pit undisputed lightweight champion Conor McGregor against Nate Diaz in a tie-breaking rubber match.

Tom Taylor - October 8, 2017

Last night, the UFC touched down in Las Vegas, Nevada with the absolutely thrilling UFC 216. In the main event, we saw streaking lightweight stars Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee collide for the UFC interim lightweight title. Though Lee started strong, nearly finishing Ferguson in the first, Ferguson surged back in the later rounds, ultimately putting Lee away with a choke in the third round. While Lee performed admirably against Ferguson, it was initially a bit of a surprise when he was announced as Ferguson’s opponent. The expectation instead was that the UFC would make its latest attempt at booking an interim title fight between Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov – a booking that has fallen through many times in the past.

Justin Golightly - September 19, 2017

There has been an endless stream of trash talk since Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee were booked to fight. Actually, it was even before that when the war of words started. After his quick win over Michael Chiesa, Lee already started digging into Ferguson in their post-fight interview live on the air. As wild as the verbal battle has been, the physical fight between the two is sure to be even better… and very violent. “I’mma’ beat the f-ck outta’ Tony [Ferguson]. I’ll beat him. I’mma’ beat the f-ck outta’ Tony . Tony can take a shot, I like to give shots, I’mma’ beat the f-ck outta’ Tony. I’mma’ beat the hell out of him. I’m going to I beat him from pillar to post. Y’all just wait, the folks don’t really know. I’mma’ beat the f-ck outta’ Tony.”

Justin Golightly - September 7, 2017

Talking about Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson fighting almost brings up some post-traumatic canceled disorder symptoms. It seems like we’ve talked about the fight longer than the build-up to Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. Their rivalry reached its peak for UFC 209 with an interim UFC lightweight title on the line. There was so much hype around the fight and it was billed as the best lightweight fight the UFC could have put on at the time. As we all know, Khabib had medical issues and had to pull-out of that fight. They were in talks to meet once again in the Octagon this year, but nothing ever materialized. Tony Ferguson recently expressed his frustrations on the latest episode of Submission Radio. “It is what it is and it’s not funny anymore, it really isn’t. [Khabib Nurmagomedov] got a lot fans that are really disappointed in you and you’re… f-ck dude, you’re disappointing yourself. You’re letting me fight a number seven [ranked fighter]. You gotta’ be sitting on the sidelines hating your ass. You gotta’ be thinking, like, ‘sh-t, why the hell did I not sign on that dotted line? Why am I letting Ferguson fight Kevin Lee? Holy sh-t, Tony’s gonna’ get a belt and I’m not gonna get sh-t. I’m gonna be stuck here with that fake belt that I got when I f-ckin’ went to Russia and everyone gave one to me.’ That’s what he’s gonna’ be saying, enjoying his team tiramisu like at the end of dodge ball when you have Ben Stiller eating that f-cking ice cream f-ckin’ Chuck Norris.”