The UFC reportedly couldn’t find Khabib Nurmagomedov the morning of the pre-fight press conference.
Khabib Nurmagomedov didn’t make his media obligations scheduled for Wednesday morning. The undefeated Dagestani had some radio interviews booked, but as Eric Kowal of MyMMANews reported, he never showed up.
This came as particularly terrifying news to fight fans who have already seen Tony Ferguson withdraw from the main event with a knee injury. Featherweight champion Max Holloway replaced ‘El Cucuy’ on six days’ notice to fight for the undisputed lightweight belt.
According to Kowal, the promotion had ‘trouble locating’ Nurmagomedov, so the decision was made to scrap his morning interviews.
#UFC PR team has canceled all of #Khabib Nurmagomedov's #UFC223 media obligations this morning. Apparently they are "having trouble locating him"
— MyMMANews (@MyMMANews) April 4, 2018
The war before the war
Nurmagomedov isn’t a Nick Diaz-type character who’s prone to no-showing for the sake of it. The last time his whereabouts were unknown he was in hospital receiving treatment for a botched weight cut. That marked the third time a scheduled bout against Ferguson had fallen through. We’re now on four.
Fortunately, he didn’t go missing for long. By the looks of it, he avoided speaking to media in order to ensure he makes championship weight.
His cousin was the first to set everyone’s minds at ease. He uploaded a photo of Khabib cutting weight in a sweat suit with his team, looking alive and about as well as could be expected considering he’s in the process of sucking all the moisture out of his body.
The caption roughly translates to English as ‘Moving well towards the goal.’
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhKEPWPDM4D/?taken-by=nurmagomedov_84
Then his team, the American Kickboxing Academy, posted an image everyone wanted to see.
Nurmagomedov standing up, flexing his guns and looking like a man who’s preparing to fight on Sunday morning.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhKGefhFJ_g/
No more scares like that, please. The MMA gods can be very cruel at times.
