Khabib Nurmagomedov believes Max Holloway needs to ‘test’ himself at lightweight before a potential fight

Among the madness that was UFC 223, we saw several changes made to the fight card as well as the main event.

Originally scheduled to be a vacant lightweight title bout between perennial top contenders in Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, things would drastically change after a freak injury forced Ferguson out of the fight.

Coming in to save the day would be the last of the expected options and that was the UFC featherweight champion, Max Holloway. However, during his weight cut, the New York State Athletic Commission would stop him short for safety purposes which led to Al Iaquinta being the one to finally end up facing Nurmagomedov.

Since then, Holloway has gone through some more health scares but would put that all behind him with his recent bout at UFC 231 where he looked better than ever before.

Holloway would break multiple records on route to a fourth-round TKO victory over Brian Ortega to successfully defend his title for the second time.

After doing so, it has led to plenty of discussion among the community as well as UFC President Dana White himself about Holloway moving up the lightweight division.

When asked about his thoughts on the possibility of getting another fight with Holloway made, the lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov had the following to say (via MMA Team Dagestan).

https://twitter.com/MMATeamDagestan/status/1073611988994064387

“@TeamKhabib: Max is doing well, this is interesting to me, he is my potential rival.. but this is different category for him, other body structure, another wrestling.

“I think he needs to do some fights if he goes into lightweight division, to test your capabilities. This is purely my opinion. After all, in my weight there are those who deserve it more; @TonyFergusonXT, @DustinPoirier ..”

Currently, Nurmagomedov is still waiting to hear what his punishment will be from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his post-fight actions at UFC 229. Until then, nothing can really be decided.

However, it seems that a possible fight with Tony Ferguson could be re-made. Of course, it’s all depending on what happens with Nurmagomedov and the NSAC.

on 12/14/2018