Khabib Nurmagomedov ‘done’ fighting in Nevada following NAC punishments

Tuesday morning we found out that UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov won’t be eligible to return to action until April at the earliest.

However, upon his return, it doesn’t seem like he’ll be accepting any fights that are set to take place in the state of Nevada, which is the state that punished him following his last bout in October 2018 at UFC 229 in Las Vegas.

According to Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdelaziz via ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, the undefeated lightweight king eyes a return in November at Madison Square Garden.

“Just reported on @SportsCenter: Khabib Nurmagomedov is “done” fighting in NV due to the one-year suspension they handed his teammates today, his mgr Ali Abdelaziz said. He will also not fight until their suspensions are over and is now targeting a return to action at MSG in Nov.” Helwani tweeted.

Assuming Nurmagomedov stays true to his teammates, that means that he will wait until that October – November time frame as the Nevada Athletic Commission handed his cousin Abubakar and other teammate, Zubaira Tukhugov both $25,000 fines and one-year suspensions.

With Khabib Nurmagomedov now officially shelved for a certain period of time, it feels safe to assume that we’ll get another interim title bout at 155-pounds.

The most logical contenders to put against one another would be none other than the surging duo of Tony Ferguson and Dustin Poirier. The two have already been briefly going back and forth about a fight and it’s one that would undoubtedly deliver in terms of excitement.

For Ferguson, it would be his second career crack at an interim title as he originally won one at UFC 216 by defeating Kevin Lee via third-round submission (triangle). He would later be stripped due to injury.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/29/2019