Tony Ferguson has offered a solution to give his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov the best chance of actually happening.
El Cucuy was forced to withdraw from his scheduled bout against the undefeated Dagestani at UFC on Fox 19 due to blood/fluid being found in his lung.
Ferguson revealed that the injury will keep him out of action for a couple of weeks, meaning that he will not be able to compete on the April 19 event.
This lead to a slew of fighters requesting to take on the undefeated Dagestani instead including Donald Cerrone, BJ Penn and even champion Rafael dos Anjos, the latter doesn’t seem to understand that practicing Muslim Nurmagomedov will be unable to train during Ramadan and therefore won’t be able compete on UFC 200.
However, the man who was forced to pull out of the initial fight, doesn’t want to lose the match-up which will almost certainly guarantee him a title shot if he wins. Ferguson revealed on Twitter that he offered Khabib the same fight, but rescheduled for the UFC Fight Night 88 card on May 29.
Offered @TeamKhabib the Title Contender Fight for May 29 #LasVegas… Couple weeks to heal, Get Back to Work. Take the Fight Khabib #ElCucuy
— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) April 6, 2016
UFC on Foz 19 headlined by Cody Garbrandt vs Thomas Almeida and featuring Renan Barao’s featherweight debut against Jeremy Stephens is fairly stacked already, so it is unknown whether the UFC would go for this option. However, MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani confirmed on Twitter that it is being considered by the powers that be.
Yup. Nothing done yet. https://t.co/0BiuamGnjX
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 6, 2016
